Why do all the sudo? [was Re: Software updater no longer functional]

[Robert Heller]

At Sun, 22 Jan 2017 19:01:37 +0000 "Ubuntu user technical support,  not for general discussions" <ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com> wrote:

> 
> On 22 January 2017 at 17:21, Ken D'Ambrosio <ken at jots.org> wrote:
> > On 2017-01-22 12:12, Robert Heller wrote:
> >
> >>> Yep! Couldn't agree more. I use 'sudo -i' a lot! But it's rarely
> >>> suggested in any advice or documentation I've seen.
> >>
> >>
> >> This is intentional.
> >
> >
> > It is.  But...
> 
> A significant point is that many people here asking for help, or
> finding it when googling later, are not experienced admins. An
> experienced admin seeing instructions here which use sudo will know
> immediately the alternative techniques and is entirely free to use
> them if he/she sees fit.  For the less experienced users it is safer
> to use sudo.

+100.  Yes, there are all sorts of "shortcuts", but unless you really know 
what you are doing, the shortcuts can burn you.  Repeating sudo may seem like 
a stupid waste, but it is the best way to *document* what is going on and is a 
good practice for less experienced users.  There are various benefits, 
including an audit trail, the command get stored in the *user's* history (for 
*easy* later recall).

There is also nothing stopping you from collecting a complex command sequence 
in a bash shell script and then:

sudo ./bunchofcomplexcommands.sh

(but be carefull to debug that script first!)

> 
> Colin
> 

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