sudo sometimes fails for me

[R. Hirschfeld]

> Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2004 12:43:07 -0600
> From: Clinton MacDonald <clint.macdonald@sbcglobal.net>

> [clint@YellowPup]$ sudo synaptic &
> [2] 2610
> [clint@YellowPup]$ Password:clint_password
> -bash: clint_password: command not found
> [clint@YellowPup]$
> 
> It would seem that there was a bug in sudo, such that it assigned a 
> process ID to synaptic *before* asking for my password, then revealed 
> the rest of the transaction in clear text.

You are typing your password to the shell rather than to sudo.
Perhaps sudo -b does what you want.

Ray