Friday, October 7, 2022

[SOLVED] How do I run a sudo command in Emacs?

Issue

I'm trying to create shortcut keys for some commonly used sudo shell commands (for example, having C-c s run (shell-command "sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart")).

I tried using a straight-up shell-command call as above, but it just outputs the following to the *Shell Command Output* buffer:

[sudo] password for Inaimathi:
Sorry, try again.
[sudo] password for Inaimathi:
Sorry, try again.
[sudo] password for Inaimathi:
Sorry, try again.
sudo: 3 incorrect password attempts

It doesn't actually ask for a password. I don't want to have to start up Emacs using sudo emacs, but I guess that's an option if nothing else will work.

The ideal solution would be a function from within Emacs (as opposed to OS jiggery-pokery to change the behaviour of the shell or the sudo command). Something like (sudo-shell-command "dostuff"), or (with-password-prompt (shell-command "sudo dostuff")).


Solution

How about:

(shell-command (concat "echo " (shell-quote-argument (read-passwd "Password? "))
                       " | sudo -S your_command_here"))


Answered By - scottfrazer
Answer Checked By - Katrina (WPSolving Volunteer)
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