Why do all the sudo? [was Re: Software updater no longer functional]

[Ralf Mardorf]

On Wed, 25 Jan 2017 08:31:14 +0100, iceblink wrote:
>On 2017-01-23 18:57, Ralf Mardorf wrote:
>>> On 23 Jan 2017, at 11:16, iceblink <iceblink at seti.nl> wrote:  
>>   
>>>   
>>   
>>> he typed "rm -rf /", typo, "TAB", something, "ENTER".  
>> 
>> And what is different, if somebody makes this typo using "sudo"? The
>> same accident would happen. 1. Don't be root to delete something that
>> doesn't require root privileges. 2. Don't use -rf, use -Ir. The same
>> accident would happen when using sudo -i as well as when using
>> sudo.  
>
>The difference is that you are asked for a password, and have 2
>seconds to process in your brain what just happened. Those 2 seconds
>make a world of difference if you have an Oops!-moment like the one I 
>described...

That's nonsense!

You would make the typo after "sudo" or after "sudo -i", so you gain no
time at all.

You won't type

rm -rf / typo sudo

you would type

sudo rm -rf / typo

and a typo becomes more likely if you type

sudo foo
sudo bar
sudo n

then when just typing

sudo -i
foo
bar
n

because of the repeated sudo and the way the human brain works.

Apart from this I wonder how slow you guess that people type their
commands.

It doesn't take 2 seconds to type sudo and nobody types sudo and then
takes a rest of 2 seconds to reread the typed command several times.

Regards,
Ralf