sudo sometimes fails for me

[Clinton MacDonald]

Mr. Hirschfeld:

R. Hirschfeld wrote:
>>Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2004 12:43:07 -0600
> You are typing your password to the shell rather than to sudo.
> Perhaps sudo -b does what you want.

I will give it a try, it sounds like what I want to do (and pretty 
simple). The man page for sudo says:

"The -b (background ) option tells sudo to run the given command in the 
background. Note that if you use the -b option you cannot use shell job 
control to manipulate the process."

I think that is what I want. I will try it when I return to my YDL machine.

>>> Of course, the work-around is "don't do that." If I just type "sudo 
>>> synaptic" I get the console back fine. However, old habits die hard, and 
>>> sudo shouldn't reveal my password under *ANY* circumstances.
> 
> Oops, I gather from this subsequent paragraph that the -b option isn't
> necessary. But when you run sudo itself in the background, it doesn't
> even see the password you type on the terminal, let alone reveal it.

No, I think you were right the first time. Just because I don't *like* 
the way sudo behaves, doesn't mean it isn't behaving the way it was 
designed. ;-)

Best wishes,
Clint

-- 
Dr. Clinton C. MacDonald | <mailto:clint DOT macdonald AT sbcglobal DOT net>