Re: sudoers mistake

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Author: Michael Havens
Date:  
To: Main PLUG discussion list
Subject: Re: sudoers mistake
regardless, how do I fix sudoers?
:-)~MIKE~(-:


On Thu, Jul 4, 2013 at 4:15 PM, Kevin Fries <> wrote:

> Mike,
>
> Leave your sudoers file alone and add your user to the sudo group
> instead. Much more flexible.
>
> Kevin
> On Jul 4, 2013 4:28 PM, "Michael Havens" <> wrote:
>
>> I wanted to add my user to the sudoers file so I typed in 'visudo. and
>> put my userid where I figure it should go. Now whenever I type 'sudo <?>'
>> the output of the shell is:
>>
>> bmike1@PresarioLapTop1:/home$ sudo mkdir /backups
>> sudo: parse error in /etc/sudoers near line 14
>> sudo: no valid sudoers sources found, quitting
>> sudo: unable to initialize policy plugin
>>
>>
>> so I think I'll go in and put it the way it was:
>>
>> bmike1@PresarioLapTop1:/home$ sudo visudo
>> sudo: parse error in /etc/sudoers near line 14
>> sudo: no valid sudoers sources found, quitting
>> sudo: unable to initialize policy plugin
>>
>> Here is the sudoers file:
>>
>> #
>> # This file MUST be edited with the 'visudo' command as root.
>> #
>> # Please consider adding local content in /etc/sudoers.d/ instead of
>> # directly modifying this file.
>> #
>> # See the man page for details on how to write a sudoers file.
>> #
>> Defaults        env_reset
>> Defaults        mail_badpass
>> Defaults
>>  secure_path="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin"

>>
>> # Host alias specification
>> bmike1
>>
>> # User alias specification
>>
>> # Cmnd alias specification
>>
>> # User privilege specification
>> root    ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL

>>
>> # Members of the admin group may gain root privileges
>> %admin ALL=(ALL) ALL
>>
>> # Allow members of group sudo to execute any command
>> %sudo ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL
>>
>> # See sudoers(5) for more information on "#include" directives:
>>
>> #includedir /etc/sudoers.d
>>
>> HEY! Look at that. I put my user in the wrong space. I meant to put it
>> under '# User alias specification' but now I see that is wrong; I needed to
>> put it under '# User privilege specification'.
>> Also, what about the "ALL's". What do they mean?
>> Can I fix this with VI? I'm not just doing it because I don't want to
>> mess this up so bad I need to reinstall
>> :-)~MIKE~(-:
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Jul 4, 2013 at 2:56 PM, Michael Havens <> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>> Okay Matt (or anyone else who wants to answer this), could I do this:
>>> first I make a directory in the usb called 'bmike1-backup'
>>>
>>> #!/bin/bash
>>> sudo mkdir /backups <-create backups dir
>>> sudo mount /sdc1/backup-bmike1 /backups <- tell computer to see a
>>> directory in the usb drive as /backups
>>> rsync -av /home/bmike1
>>> sudo umount backups; sudo rmdir backups <-make everything like it was
>>>
>>>
>>>> On Sat, Jun 29, 2013 at 12:45 PM, Matt Graham <>wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> 1. Plug this disk in. Usually, removable disks have 1 partition of
>>>>> type FAT32
>>>>> or NTFS covering their whole space. (Check that this is the case, if
>>>>> not,
>>>>> something weird may be going on.)
>>>>>
>>>>> 2. Make a filesystem with a label on this partition. "mke2fs -j -L
>>>>> MY_BACKUPS
>>>>> /dev/sdN1" . Find what N is by looking at the output of dmesg | tail.
>>>>>
>>>>> 3. Make an entry for the partition you made in your /etc/fstab :
>>>>>
>>>>> LABEL=MY_BACKUPS /mnt/backup ext3 noauto,users,noatime 0 0
>>>>>
>>>>> 4. As root, mkdir /mnt/backup if it doesn't exist, then mount this
>>>>> partition
>>>>> on /mnt/backup , mkdir /mnt/backup/USER , and chown USER
>>>>> /mnt/backup/USER .
>>>>>
>>>>> 5. Make a shell script sort of like this:
>>>>>
>>>>> #!/bin/bash
>>>>> if [[ $1 == '--help' || $1 == '-h' ]] ; then
>>>>>     echo "backs up ~USER to backup drive."
>>>>>     exit;
>>>>> fi

>>>>>
>>>>> if mount | grep /mnt/backup > /dev/null ; then
>>>>>     rsync -av --delete-after /home/USER/ /mnt/backup/USER
>>>>> else
>>>>>     echo "backup disk not mounted.  Trying to mount it."
>>>>>     mount /mnt/backup
>>>>>     if mount | grep /mnt/backup > /dev/null ; then
>>>>>          echo "Is the disk plugged in?  Can't mount, bailing."
>>>>>          exit 1
>>>>>     fi
>>>>>     rsync -av --delete-after /home/USER/ /mnt/backup/USER
>>>>>     umount /mnt/backup
>>>>> fi

>>>>>
>>>>> 6. Any time you want to make a backup, plug your disk in, and run that
>>>>> shell
>>>>> script. The initial rsync will take some time. Subsequent rsyncs
>>>>> will take a
>>>>> couple of minutes.
>>>>>
>>>>> This is AFAICT a reasonably good way to do things, because it doesn't
>>>>> take a
>>>>> lot of time to keep your backup up to date, and restoring is as simple
>>>>> as
>>>>> mounting the backup disk and copying things over. Since there is only
>>>>> 1
>>>>> backup, though, you could delete something, make a backup, then
>>>>> realize you
>>>>> needed that thing. I have 2 backup disks and rotate them every few
>>>>> days to
>>>>> make that less likely.
>>>>>
>>>>> You could even get fancy and use dm-crypt to back up your stuff to an
>>>>> encrypted disk, which is useful in some situations like when you want
>>>>> to leave
>>>>> the disk somewhere that's not under your direct control like a
>>>>> friend's house.
>>>>> Using dm-crypt makes things a bit more complex, but I can write
>>>>> another
>>>>> message about that.
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> Matt G / Dances With Crows
>>>>> The Crow202 Blog: http://crow202.org/wordpress/
>>>>> There is no Darkness in Eternity/But only Light too dim for us to see
>>>>>
>>>>> ---------------------------------------------------
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>>>>> http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
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