'alias' + sudo

[George Davidovich]

On Thu, Sep 03, 2009 at 08:10:36PM -0400, Jerry wrote:
> On Fri, 4 Sep 2009 01:34:05 +0200 Mel Flynn wrote:
> 
> > alias spico='/usr/local/bin/sudo pico -m' and be done with it.

Instead of an extra alias, why not export $VISUAL or $EDITOR, and rely
on sudoedit(8)?

> That is what I am currently doing; however,there are other commands
> that I want to use that are not available when used via sudo without
> modifying the alias. I did not realize that sudo had such a
> limitation.

It's not a "limitation".  It's a feature.  ;-)  Re-read the sudo
manpage.

I'd be surprised if most of your aliases would ever require root
privileges, and are anything but one-off shortcuts for your personal
use.

For those that do, I'd suggest replacing them with a function (or
script) that tests for root privileges (using something like id(1)), and
invokes sudo when appropriate.  

Otherwise, you may want to consider using 'su -m'.  That will your
current environment unmodified and all your existing aliases will remain
available for use.

-- 
George