adding myself to sudoer file

[Doug Lassiter]

So I edited my sudoer file as Administrator, added myself, then logged back into my own account - memyselfandi.
When I test my sudoer status by doing

mycomputer$ sudo echo "hello world"

I get a complaint ...

/private/etc/sudoers.d/sudoers:1:11: syntax error
<memyselfandi> ALL=(ALL) ALL
^

Um, what's wrong with what I edited into my sudoer file? What is this error?
FWIW, I'm then asked for the password, and once I give it, it does the echo properly.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

How did you edit the sudoers file? Did you do "sudo visudo" and then duplicate the root line and replace root with your username? Or did you edit the file in a different way?

 

[Lifeisabeach]

So I edited my sudoer file as Administrator, added myself, then logged back into my own account - memyselfandi.
When I test my sudoer status by doing

mycomputer$ sudo echo "hello world"

I get a complaint ...

/private/etc/sudoers.d/sudoers:1:11: syntax error
<memyselfandi> ALL=(ALL) ALL
^

Um, what's wrong with what I edited into my sudoer file? What is this error?
FWIW, I'm then asked for the password, and once I give it, it does the echo properly.

Since we don't know HOW you did this, we couldn't tell you what you did wrong. Here's a guide on how to do it:

How to Add a User to the Sudoers File in Mac OS X

Advanced users may need to add a user account to the sudoers file, which allows that user to run certain commands with root privileges. To greatly simplify what that means, these newly privileged u…

osxdaily.com

And another:

Pro Terminal Commands: How and Why To Edit Sudoers on macOS - Apple Gazette

Within your macOS system, there’s a file called “sudoers” which controls the deepest levels of your permissions system. This file says which users can run sudo, and what they can do when they run it. Basically, it decides who is in charge. We can edit sudoers on macOS to administer a multi-user...

www.applegazette.com

 

[Doug Lassiter]

Yes, I did "sudo visudo" and just duplicated the root line (with the tab after the account name), but with my own account name. Those two lines are identical except for the account name. So yes, you know HOW I did this, and it just took me a few hours to answer. Unlike what it quotes in that syntax error, the actual line I added was
memyselfandi ALL=(ALL) ALL without the brackets. But that should have been obvious.

Oh, and I already have all the web instructions that you pointed to. As far as I can tell, I did exactly what they told me to do.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

The sudoers file is very finicky thus you have to edit with the 'visudo' command and ensure that you follow the style of the other content in there.

I just modified my file to be the following

# root and users in group wheel can run anything on any machine as any user
root ALL = (ALL) ALL
<username> ALL = (ALL) ALL
%admin ALL = (ALL) ALL

And I can now sudo without the need for my password. I do notice that you don't have spaces between "ALL=(ALL)" like I do, so ensure that your file looks like something like mine.

 

[Doug Lassiter]

Thanks. As I said, I duplicated the line for root. So the spacing is identical (with a tab after username). No reason why if it works for root, it shouldn't work for me. That's what I'm asking about here.

This below is exactly what is in that section (copied from the visudo display)

# root and users in group wheel can run anything on any machine as any user root ALL = (ALL) ALL %admin ALL = (ALL) ALL memyselfandi ALL = (ALL) ALL

So the issue is, where is the syntax error in all this?

In fact, I get that error even when visudo is first invoked.

mycomputer$ sudo visudo /private/etc/sudoers.d/sudoers:1:11: syntax error <memyselfandi> ALL=(ALL) ALL ^ Password:

 

[Raz0rEdge]

Remove the line you added, save the file and go back into visudo to ensure that the error disappears and re-add the line to see what happens.

 

[Doug Lassiter]

Hmmm. The VERY funny thing is that once I do that, and remove the line I added, I get PRECISELY THE SAME SYNTAX ERROR. That is, if you go into visudo, and look at the file, that added line is completely gone, but somehow the sudoer file has gotten cached somewhere!

 

[Raz0rEdge]

So just removing the line gives you that error? If so, there is an error in the file itself. Check line #11 of the file to see what it says.

 

[Doug Lassiter]

Line 11 is the first line in the sequence
Defaults env_reset Defaults env_keep += "BLOCKSIZE" Defaults env_keep += "COLORFGBG COLORTERM" Defaults env_keep += "__CF_USER_TEXT_ENCODING"

 

[Lifeisabeach]

Yes, I did "sudo visudo" and just duplicated the root line (with the tab after the account name), but with my own account name. Those two lines are identical except for the account name. So yes, you know HOW I did this, and it just took me a few hours to answer. Unlike what it quotes in that syntax error, the actual line I added was
memyselfandi ALL=(ALL) ALL without the brackets. But that should have been obvious.

NOTHING is obvious when typos are a potential thing, not to mention skill levels for this sort of thing on the part of the user are an unknown. We periodically get people in here who muck about with the command line not know what they are doing. What was seemingly obvious was you did something wrong, so it was back to basics.

 

[Doug Lassiter]

Lifeisabeach, do you specialize in not being constructive? Time to bow out.

 

[Lifeisabeach]

Lifeisabeach, do you specialize in not being constructive? Time to bow out.

Wow.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

And with that we're done.