Remove .sudo_as_admin_successful file from home folder.

[BeatLink]

Surely there must be some other way to check if the user is running sudo for the first time. Googling the file name as is, specificially ".sudo_as_admin_successful" will show the entire first page being devoted to removing the file. It is clear that many users find the file annoying and cluttering. Not to mention that it does not follow linux filesystem and XDG folder conventions.

Alternatively, default to not enabling the flag that creates the file

[millert]

That was a Ubuntu-specific change that I adopted, it is only enabled on Ubuntu. I'll consider making it configurable in sudoers.

That was a Ubuntu-specific change that I adopted, it is only enabled on Ubuntu. I'll consider making it configurable in sudoers.

Not to beat a dying horse, but-- could this please, please be implemented? Or at least move the file to somewhere that follows the XDG Base Directory Specification?

Thank you :)

[millert]

The next sudo release will contain the linked commit that makes this configurable. Blame Ubuntu for the path :-)

[BeatLink]

Thank you!

[roysubs]

Blame Ubuntu for the path :-)

Are you talking about the ~/.sudo_as_admin_successful path, or are you talking about some new location for where Ubuntu are going to put the flag? i.e. can you describe what the new behaviour will be (maybe it's even more annoying than the old behaviour!? 🤔)

[millert]

@roysubs The original complaint was that .sudo_as_admin_successful is located in the user's home directory. In sudo 1.9.6 the path can be changed or the feature disabled by using the admin_flag setting in the sudoers file.

[roysubs]

Excellent, I will make that admin_flag change immediately then as I tend to like a clean environment, and that long name sticks out like a sore thumb on every Ubuntu system. Great to see this update, as the OP pointed out, it's virtually the only thing that thousands of users for 12+ years have searched google for on this subject. i.e. "how do we get rid of this thing??". Do we expect this in Ubuntu 21.10 or will it be sooner? I'm really unclear how I will know when this update is available for us to use...

[geekley]

or the feature disabled by using the admin_flag setting

Sorry if these are dumb questions, but could someone explain it a little more? By disabling it, you mean something like this?
/etc/sudoers.d/disable_admin_file_in_home

# Disable ~/.sudo_as_admin_successful file
Defaults !admin_flag

What happens when it's disabled? Will the message below still appear every time when the file is absent?

To run a command as administrator (user "root"), use "sudo <command>".
See "man sudo_root" for details.

If so, is there some setting that disables both the file and the message (on Ubuntu)?
Like setting it to empty string or true or something like that?

Defaults admin_flag=""

Defaults admin_flag

Or is changing the path the only way?
(I can't test it here yet because on Kubuntu 21.10 sudo -V says it's version 1.9.5p2)

[millert]

That message comes from the /etc/bash.bashrc file which looks for $HOME/.sudo_as_admin_successful and displays a message if it doesn't exist. If you tell sudo not to create the admin flag file (and it doesn't already exist) then you will always receive that message from bash unless you modify /etc/bash.bashrc.

Of course, you can simply create the file yourself to disable the message, for example:

touch ~/.sudo_as_admin_successful

[geekley]

Ah I see. Thanks!
Hopefully in a future Ubuntu version they could just change that path to somewhere else in both bashrc and sudoers ...

[MestreLion]

Ah I see. Thanks! Hopefully in a future Ubuntu version they could just change that path to somewhere else in both bashrc and sudoers ...

Too bad Ubuntu didn't use this feature in 22.04 LTS, even if shipping 1.9.9. Custom path is not set at compile-time, and neither /etc/sudoers nor /etc/bash.bashrc were changed.

But at least admins can now change the behavior locally without recompiling. Thanks sudo team!