[PLUG] visudo for ubuntu ... pico? nano? joe?

[Russell Senior]

Iirc, nano is the default editor. Pretty sure you can change it with
update-alternatives to the editor of your choice.

I have only used visudo to edit the /etc/sudoers file. For editing
most other files, sudo emacs or sudo vi or sudo ed should work just
fine.

man visudo summaries itself as "visudo — edit the sudoers file"

See also "man update-alternatives"

On Mon, Oct 4, 2021 at 1:17 AM Keith Lofstrom <keithl at kl-ic.com> wrote:
>
> I am learning about Ubuntu sysadmin, and why I should use
> visudo instead of logging in as root user to use vi.
> This assumes that Eve hasn't inserted a malware version
> of visudo into my path ...
>
> Except - on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, visudo calls the "nano"
> text editor, and on 20.04 LTS it calls the "joe" text
> editor.  So WHY still call it visudo?
>
> Anyway, I will use vi (aka vim) until they pry my keyboard
> out of my cold dead fingers.  I change editors as often as
> I change lungs.
>
> Other helpful guest sysadmins may prefer this shifting
> editor nonsense, so I plan to leave /usr/bin/visudo as-is
> and create a /usr/local/sbin/vvisudo shell script
> containing "sudo EDITOR=vim visudo" ...
>
> ... and add Yet Another Postit with how to exit nano
> or joe, or whatever editor they eventually choose for
> 22.04 LTS, in case I forget the extra v for vvisudo.
>
> Keith
>
> P.S.  Ctl-x for nano, Ctl-k for joe.  I think ...
>
> P.P.S.  vi turns fifty in 2026.  I've used it since it
> was beta.  Others change editors more often than they
> change their underwear.
>
> --
> Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com