sudo and /etc/sudoers

[Matthew Flaschen]

Karl F. Larsen wrote:
>     The two Subject things and their man pages are the most obscure 
> information I have ever seen on my computer. They do work but in trying 
> to explain to myself HOW they work was a thankless job. I have an idea 
> how it works but why is it so darn crude? It would seem that someone who 
> fully understands the code could write something that makes /etc/sudoers 
> much easier to read.

Keep in mind that /etc/sudoers does more than just say, "Johnny can have
root but Billy can't".  It provides very fine granularity (which users
and/or groups, which executables, which password to ask, etc.).
Designing a better file format would be possible but non-trivial.

Matt Flaschen