I've lost sudo access and I don't really understand why

[Karl Auer]

On Wed, 2020-03-18 at 21:28 +0000, Chris Green wrote:
> So (unless using the -a option) usermod removes group membership that
> isn't specifically stated.  Surely there's an easier way to add
> oneself to an extra group.

It's not that tricky - the -G option sets the list of groups the user
should belong to. If you want to APPEND that list to the list of groups
the user ALREADY belongs to, specify -a as well.

Which is more dangerous - to permit a person with sudo access to lose
it by mistake, or to permit a person who should not have access to
certain groups to retain them by mistake? usermod says it's the former,
and thus makes "don't append" the default.

Personally I almost always modify /etc/groups directly (i.e., with a
text editor) unless the operation is scripted. It has never failed me
in well over 30 years of Unixing.

If it really worries you, set up an alias that does a group append for
you.

Regards, K.
 
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