Shell confusion

Bill Davidsen davidsen at tmr.com
Fri Mar 13 23:05:32 UTC 2009


Mikkel L. Ellertson wrote:
> Matthew Flaschen wrote:
>> You should not run GUI apps under a root shell.  Do:
>>
>> sudo gedit
>>
> What is the difference between running "su - -c gedit" and "sudo
> gedit" - they both run gedit as with root permissions. The only
> difference I know about is that the first form runs with root's
> environment. (Like the -i option of sudo.) I would expect this to be
>  marginally safer, as you know you are using root's path.
> 
Just so. using the "-" causes execution of the initialization done at login as 
the shell starts. This can include .bashrc, .bash_profile, etc, etc. The the 
bash man page for the exact precedence of that stuff.

>> or better yet:
>>
>> sudoedit /etc/the_config.ext
>>
> This is much safer, and you can still use gedit as your editor if
> you want by setting the VISUAL or EDITOR environment variables.
> 
> Mikkel
> 


-- 
Bill Davidsen <davidsen at tmr.com>
   "We have more to fear from the bungling of the incompetent than from
the machinations of the wicked."  - from Slashdot




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