Sudo
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Sudo Installation Notes

Sudo uses a configure script to probe the capabilities and type of the system in question. Sudo’s configure script has a large number of options that control its behavior and enable or disable optional functionality. Be sure to read this document fully before configuring and building sudo. You may also wish to read the file INSTALL.configure which explains more about the configure script itself.

System requirements

To build sudo from the source distribution you will need a POSIX-compliant operating system (any modern version of BSD, Linux, or Unix should work), a C compiler that conforms to ISO C99 or higher, and the ar, make, and ranlib utilities.

If you wish to modify the parser then you will need flex version 2.5.2 or later and either bison or byacc (sudo comes with a parser generated with GNU bison). You’ll also have to run configure with the --with-devel option or pass DEVEL=1 to make. You can get flex from https://github.com/westes/flex/. You can get GNU bison from https://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/bison/ or any GNU mirror.

Some systems will also require that development library packages be installed. The sudo source distribution includes docker configurations for common Linux distributions that are used for continuous integration in the docker directory. See the appropriate OS-specific Dockerfile for a list of packages required to build sudo.

Simple sudo installation

  1. If you are upgrading from a previous version of sudo, read docs/UPGRADE.md before proceeding.

  2. Read the “OS dependent notes” section for any particular “gotchas” relating to your operating system.

  3. cd to the source or build directory and type ./configure to generate a Makefile and config.h file suitable for building sudo. Before you actually run configure you should read the “Available configure options” section to see if there are any special options you may want or need.

  4. Type make to compile sudo. If configure did its job properly (and you have a supported configuration) there won’t be any problems. If you have a problem, check docs/TROUBLESHOOTING.md for tips on what might have gone wrong. If your problem is not covered, you may file a bug report at https://bugzilla.sudo.ws/ or an issue at https://github.com/sudo-project/sudo/issues/ (not both).

  5. Optionally, type make check to build and run the sudo unit and regression tests. For more verbose output, use make check-verbose.

  6. Type make install (as root) to install sudo, visudo, the man pages, and a skeleton sudoers file. The install will not overwrite an existing sudoers file. You can also install various pieces of the package via the install-binaries, install-doc, and install-sudoers make targets.

  7. Edit the sudoers file with visudo as necessary for your site. You will probably want to refer the example sudoers file and sudoers man page included with the sudo package.

  8. If you want to use syslogd(8) to do the logging, you’ll need to update your /etc/syslog.conf file. See the examples/syslog.conf file included in the distribution for an example.

Available configure options

This section describes flags accepted by the sudo’s configure script. Defaults are listed in brackets after the description.

Configuration:

--cache-file=FILE
Cache test results in FILE
--config-cache, -C
Alias for --cache-file=config.cache
--help, -h
Print the usage/help info
--no-create, -n
Do not create output files
--quiet, --silent, -q
Do not print “checking…” messages
--srcdir=DIR
Find the sources in DIR [configure dir or “..”]

Directory and file names:

--prefix=PREFIX
Install architecture-independent files in PREFIX. [/usr/local]
--exec-prefix=EPREFIX
Install architecture-dependent files in EPREFIX. This includes the executables and plugins. [same as PREFIX]
--bindir=DIR
Install cvtsudoers, sudo, sudoedit, and sudoreplay in DIR. [EPREFIX/bin]
--sbindir=DIR
Install sudo_logsrvd, sudo_sendlog, and visudo in DIR. [EPREFIX/sbin]
--libexecdir=DIR
Install plugins and helper programs in DIR/sudo [PREFIX/libexec/sudo]
--sysconfdir=DIR
Look for configuration files such as sudo.conf and sudoers in DIR. [/etc]
--includedir=DIR
Install sudo_plugin.h include file in DIR [PREFIX/include]
--datarootdir=DIR
Root directory for platform-independent data files [PREFIX/share]
--localedir=DIR
Install sudo and sudoers locale files in DIR [DATAROOTDIR/locale]
--mandir=DIR
Install man pages in DIR [PREFIX/man]
--docdir=DIR
Install other sudo documentation in DIR [DATAROOTDIR/doc/sudo]
--with-exampledir=DIR
Install sudo example files in DIR [DATAROOTDIR/doc/sudo/examples]
--with-plugindir=DIR
The directory that sudo looks in to find the policy and I/O logging plugins. Defaults to the LIBEXEC/sudo.
--with-rundir=DIR
The directory to be used for sudo-specific files that do not survive a system reboot. This is typically where the time stamp directory is located. By default, configure will choose from the following list: /run/sudo /var/run/sudo, /var/db/sudo, /var/lib/sudo, /var/adm/sudo, /usr/adm/sudo.

This directory should be cleared when the system reboots. On systems that lack /run or /var/run, the default rundir and vardir may be the same. In this case, only the ts directory inside the rundir needs to be cleared at boot time.

--with-vardir=DIR
The directory to be used for sudo-specific files that survive a system reboot. This is typically where the lecture status directory is stored. By default, configure will choose from the following list: /var/db/sudo, /var/lib/sudo, /var/adm/sudo, /usr/adm/sudo.

This directory should not be cleared when the system boots.

--with-relaydir=DIR
The directory to be used for sudo_logsrvd relay temporary files. When sudo_logsrvd is configured as a store-and-forward relay, the journaled data is written to this directory before it is forwarded to a relay server.
--with-tzdir=DIR
The directory to the system’s time zone data files. This is only used when sanitizing the TZ environment variable to allow for fully-qualified paths in TZ. By default, configure will look for an existing “zoneinfo” directory in the following locations: /usr/share, /usr/share/lib, /usr/lib, /etc.

If no zoneinfo directory is found, the TZ variable may not contain a fully-qualified path.

Compilation options:

--enable-sanitizer=[flags]
Enable the use of sanitizers such as AddressSanitizer and UndefinedBehaviorSanitizer if supported by the compiler. This can help detect common problems such as buffer overflows and use after free bugs as well as behavior not defined by the C standard. For more information see: https://github.com/google/sanitizers/wiki

If no flags are specified by the user, a default value of “-fsanitize=address,undefined” will be used.

This option should only be used for testing and not in a production environment. Due to some sanitizers’ unchecked use of environment variables, it is trivial to exploit a set-user-ID root executable such as sudo.

--enable-fuzzer
Enable building sudo with the LLVM libFuzzer, see https://www.llvm.org/docs/LibFuzzer.html for details. The resulting binaries, beginning with “fuzz_” can be used to test sudo. To run all the fuzzers for 8192 iterations, “make fuzz” can be used. This option is generally used in conjunction with --enable-sanitizer.

Fuzzing currently requires the clang C compiler--it is not supported by gcc. For best results, it is suggested to use clang 11 or higher. Some of the fuzzers are known to hang when used with earlier versions.

This option should only be used for testing and not in a production environment.

--enable-fuzzer-engine=library
The library to use when linking fuzz targets instead of LLVM’s libFuzzer. It is intended to be set to the path to an alternate fuzzing library, such as AFL++ or Honggfuzz.
--enable-fuzzer-linker=command
An alternate linker command to use when building fuzz targets, instead of clang. It may be necessary to set this when using the --enable-fuzzer-engine option to link with a fuzzer engine that requires C++ libraries. For oss-fuzz, this option is used to cause fuzz targets to be linked with clang++.
--disable-hardening
Disable the use of compiler/linker exploit mitigation options which are enabled by default. This includes compiling with _FORTIFY_SOURCE defined to 2, building with -fstack-protector, -fstack-clash-protection, -fcf-protection and linking with -zrelro, -znow, and -znoexecstack where supported.
--disable-largefile
Disable support for large (64-bit) files on 32-bit systems where the maximum file size is normally 4GB. By default, configure will enable support for 64-bit file sizes if supported by the operating system.
--disable-leaks
Avoid leaking memory even when we are headed for exit, which helps reduce the noise from static and active analyzers. This option should only be used for testing and not in a production environment.
--enable-pie
Build sudo and related programs as position independent executables (PIE). This improves the effectiveness of address space layout randomization (ASLR) on systems that support it. Sudo will create PIE binaries by default on Linux systems.
--disable-pie
Disable the creation of position independent executables (PIE), even if the compiler creates PIE binaries by default. This option may be needed on some Linux systems where PIE binaries are not fully supported.
--disable-poll
Use select() instead of poll() in the event loop. By default, sudo will use poll() on systems that support it. Some systems have a broken poll() implementation and need to use select instead. On macOS, select() is always used since its poll() doesn’t support character devices.
--disable-rpath
By default, configure will use -Rpath in addition to -Lpath when passing library paths to the loader. This option will disable the use of -Rpath.
--disable-shared
Disable dynamic shared object support. By default, sudo is built with a plugin API capable of loading arbitrary policy and I/O logging plugins. If the --disable-shared option is specified, this support is disabled and the default sudoers policy and I/O plugins are embedded in the sudo binary itself. This will also disable the intercept and noexec options as they also rely on dynamic shared object support.
--disable-shared-libutil
Disable the use of the dynamic libsudo_util library. By default, sudo, the sudoers plugin and the associated sudo utilities are linked against a shared version of libsudo_util. If the --disable-shared-libutil option is specified, a static version of the libsudo_util library will be used instead. This option may only be used in conjunction with the --enable-static-sudoers option.
--disable-ssp
Disable use of the -fstack-protector compiler option. This does not affect the other hardening options.
--enable-static-sudoers
By default, the sudoers plugin is built and installed as a dynamic shared object. When the --enable-static-sudoers option is specified, the sudoers plugin is compiled directly into the sudo binary. Unlike --disable-shared, this does not prevent other plugins from being used and the intercept and noexec options will continue to function.
--enable-tmpfiles.d=DIR
Set the directory to be used when installing the sudo tmpfiles.d file. This is used to create (or clear) the sudo time stamp directory on operating systems that use systemd. If this option is not specified, configure will use the /usr/lib/tmpfiles.d directory if the file /usr/lib/tmpfiles.d/systemd.conf exists.
--disable-year2038
Disable support for dates after January 2038. By default, configure will enable support for 64-bit time_t values if supported by the operating system.
--enable-zlib[=location]
Enable the use of the zlib compress library when storing I/O log files. If specified, location is the base directory containing the zlib include and lib directories. The special values “system”, “builtin”, “shared”, and “static” can be used to indicate that the system version of zlib should be used or that the version of zlib shipped with sudo should be used instead. If “static” is specified, sudo will statically link the builtin zlib and not install it. If this option is not specified, configure will use the system zlib if it is present, falling back on the sudo version.
--with-incpath=DIR
Adds the specified directory (or directories) to CPPFLAGS so configure and the compiler will look there for include files. Multiple directories may be specified as long as they are space separated. E.g. --with-incpath="/usr/local/include /opt/include"
--with-libpath=DIR
Adds the specified directory (or directories) to LDFLAGS so configure and the compiler will look there for libraries. Multiple directories may be specified as with --with-incpath.
--with-libraries=LIBRARY
Adds the specified library (or libraries) to SUDO_LIBS and and VISUDO_LIBS so sudo will link against them. If the library doesn’t start with “-l” or end in “.a” or “.o” a “-l” will be prepended to it. Multiple libraries may be specified as long as they are space separated.
--with-libtool=PATH
By default, sudo will use the included version of libtool to build shared libraries. The --with-libtool option can be used to specify a different version of libtool to use. The special values “system” and “builtin” can be used in place of a path to denote the default system libtool (obtained via the user’s PATH) and the default libtool that comes with sudo.
--with-aix-soname=svr4
Starting with version 1.9.13, sudo will build AIX-style shared libraries and dynamic shared objects by default instead of svr4-style.. This means that the default sudo plugins are now .a (archive) files that contain a .so shared object file instead of bare .so files. This was done to improve compatibility with the AIX Freeware ecosystem, specifically, the AIX Freeware build of OpenSSL. To restore the old, pre-1.9.13 behavior, run configure using the --with-aix-soname=svr4 option.

Optional features:

--enable-adminconf=[DIR]
Search for configuration files in adminconfdir (PREFIX/etc by default) in preference to configuration files in sysconfdir (/etc by default). This can be used on systems where sysconfdir is located on a read-only filesystem. When this option is enabled, the visudo utility will store edited sudoers files in adminconfdir if the original was located in sysconfdir.
--disable-root-mailer
By default sudo will run the mailer as root when tattling on a user so as to prevent that user from killing the mailer. With this option, sudo will run the mailer as the invoking user which some people consider to be safer.
--enable-nls[=location]
Enable natural language support using the gettext() family of functions. If specified, location is the base directory containing the libintl include and lib directories. If this option is not specified, configure will look for the gettext() family of functions in the standard C library first, then check for a standalone libintl (linking with libiconv as needed).
--disable-nls
Disable natural language support. By default, sudo will use the gettext() family of functions, if available, to implement messages in the invoking user’s native language. Translations do not exist for all languages.
--with-ldap[=DIR]
Enable LDAP support. If specified, DIR is the base directory containing the LDAP include and lib directories. See README.LDAP.md for more information.
--with-ldap-conf-file=PATH
Path to LDAP configuration file. If specified, sudo reads this file instead of /etc/ldap.conf to locate the LDAP server.
--with-ldap-secret-file=PATH
Path to LDAP secret password file. If specified, sudo uses this file instead of /etc/ldap.secret to read the secret password when rootbinddn is specified in the ldap config file.
--disable-sasl
Disable SASL authentication for LDAP. By default, sudo will compile in support for SASL authentication if the ldap_sasl_interactive_bind_s() function is present in the LDAP libraries.
--with-apparmor
Enable support for the AppArmor Linux Security Module (LSM) on supported systems.
--with-logincap
This adds support for login classes specified in /etc/login.conf. It is enabled by default on BSD/OS, Darwin, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and NetBSD (where available). By default, a login class is not applied unless the “use_loginclass” option is defined in sudoers or the user specifies a class on the command line.
--with-interfaces=no, --without-interfaces
This option keeps sudo from trying to glean the ip address from each attached network interface. It is only useful on a machine where sudo’s interface reading support does not work, which may be the case on some SysV-based OS’s using STREAMS.
--enable-intercept[=PATH]
Enable support for the “intercept” functionality which allows sudo to perform a policy check when a dynamically-linked program run by sudo attempts to execute another program. This is also used to support the “log_subcmds” sudoers setting. For example, this means that for a shell run through sudo, the individual commands run by the shell are also subject to rules in the sudoers file. See the “Preventing Shell Escapes” section in the sudoers man page for details. If specified, PATH should either be a fully-qualified path name such as /usr/local/libexec/sudo/sudo_intercept.so, or, for AIX and Solaris systems, it may optionally be set to a 32-bit shared library followed by a 64-bit shared library, separated by a colon. If PATH is “no”, intercept support will not be compiled in. The default is to compile intercept support if libtool supports building shared objects on your system.
--with-noexec[=PATH]
Enable support for the “noexec” functionality which prevents a dynamically-linked program being run by sudo from executing another program (think shell escapes). See the “Preventing Shell Escapes” section in the sudoers man page for details. If specified, PATH should either be a fully-qualified path name such as /usr/local/libexec/sudo/sudo_noexec.so, or, for AIX and Solaris systems, it may optionally be set to a 32-bit shared library followed by a 64-bit shared library, separated by a colon. If PATH is “no”, noexec support will not be compiled in. The default is to compile noexec support if libtool supports building shared objects on your system.
--with-selinux
Enable support for role based access control (RBAC) on systems that support SELinux.
--with-sssd
Enable support for using the System Security Services Daemon (SSSD) as a sudoers data source. For more information on SSD, see https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/SSSD.
--with-sssd-conf=PATH
Specify the path to the SSSD configuration file, if different from the default value of /etc/sssd/sssd.conf.
--with-sssd-lib=PATH
Specify the path to the SSSD shared library, which is loaded at run-time.
--enable-pvs-studio
Generate a sample PVS-Studio.cfg file based on the compiler and platform type. The “pvs-studio” Makefile target can then be used if PVS-Studio is installed.
--enable-python
Enable support for sudo plugins written in Python 3. This requires a Python 3 development environment (including Python 3 header files).
--disable-log-server
Disable building the sudo_logsrvd log server.
--disable-log-client
Disable sudoers support for using the sudo_logsrvd log server.

Operating system-specific options:

--disable-setreuid
Disable use of the setreuid() function for operating systems where it is broken. For instance, 4.4BSD has setreuid() that is not fully functional.
--disable-setresuid
Disable use of the setresuid() function for operating systems where it is broken (none currently known).
--enable-admin-flag[=PATH]
Enable the creation of an Ubuntu-style admin flag file the first time sudo is run. If PATH is not specified, the default value is: ~/.sudo_as_admin_successful
--enable-devsearch=PATH
Set a system-specific search path of directories to look in for device nodes. Sudo uses this when mapping the process’s tty device number to a device name. The default value is: /dev/pts:/dev/vt:/dev/term:/dev/zcons:/dev/pty:/dev
--with-bsm-audit
Enable support for sudo BSM audit logs on systems that support it. This includes recent versions of FreeBSD, macOS and Solaris.
--with-linux-audit
Enable audit support for Linux systems. Audits attempts to run a command as well as SELinux role changes.
--with-man
Use the “man” macros for manual pages. By default, mdoc versions of the manuals are installed if supported. This can be used to override configure’s test for “nroff -mdoc” support.
--with-mdoc
Use the “mdoc” macros for manual pages. By default, mdoc versions of the manuals are installed if supported. This can be used to override configure’s test for “nroff -mdoc” support.
--with-netsvc[=PATH]
Path to netsvc.conf or “no” to disable netsvc.conf support. If specified, sudo uses this file instead of /etc/netsvc.conf on AIX systems. If netsvc support is disabled but LDAP is enabled, sudo will check LDAP first, then the sudoers file.
--with-nsswitch[=PATH]
Path to nsswitch.conf or “no” to disable nsswitch support. If specified, sudo uses this file instead of /etc/nsswitch.conf. If nsswitch support is disabled but LDAP is enabled, sudo will check LDAP first, then the sudoers file.
--with-project
Enable support for Solaris project resource limits. This option is only available on Solaris 9 and above.

Authentication options:

--with-AFS
Enable AFS support with Kerberos authentication. Should work under AFS 3.3. If your AFS doesn’t have -laudit you should be able to link without it.
--with-aixauth
Enable support for the AIX general authentication function. This will use the authentication scheme specified for the user on the machine. By default, sudo will use either AIX authentication or PAM depending on the value of the auth_type setting in the /etc/security/login.cfg file.
--with-bsdauth
Enable support for BSD authentication. This is the default for BSD/OS and OpenBSD systems that support it. It is not possible to mix BSD authentication with other authentication methods (and there really should be no need to do so). Only the newer BSD authentication API is supported. If you don’t have /usr/include/bsd_auth.h then you cannot use this.
--with-DCE
Enable DCE support for systems without PAM. Known to work on HP-UX 9.X, 10.X, and 11.0; other systems may require source code and/or configure changes. On systems with PAM support (such as HP-UX 11.0 and higher, Solaris, FreeBSD, and Linux), the DCE PAM module (usually libpam_dce) should be used instead.
--with-fwtk[=DIR]
Enable TIS Firewall Toolkit (FWTK) “authsrv” support. If specified, DIR is the base directory containing the compiled FWTK package (or at least the library and header files).
--with-kerb5[=DIR]
Enable Kerberos V support. If specified, DIR is the base directory containing the Kerberos V include and lib dirs. This uses Kerberos pass phrases for authentication but does not use the Kerberos cookie scheme. Will not work for Kerberos V older than version 1.1.
--enable-kerb5-instance=string
By default, the user name is used as the principal name when authenticating via Kerberos V. If this option is enabled, the specified instance string will be appended to the user name (separated by a slash) when creating the principal name.
--with-solaris-audit
Enable audit support for Solaris 11 and above. For older versions of Solaris, use --with-bsm-audit
--with-opie[=DIR]
Enable NRL OPIE OTP (One Time Password) support. If specified, DIR should contain include and lib directories with opie.h and libopie.a respectively.
--with-otp-only
This option is now just an alias for --without-passwd.
--with-pam
Enable PAM support. This is on by default for Darwin, FreeBSD, Linux, NetBSD, Solaris, and HP-UX (version 11 and higher).

On RedHat Linux and Fedora you must have an /etc/pam.d/sudo file installed. You may either use the example pam.conf file included with sudo or use /etc/pam.d/su as a reference. The pam.conf file included with sudo may or may not work with other Linux distributions. On Solaris and HP-UX 11 systems you should check (and understand) the contents of /etc/pam.conf. Do a man pam.conf for more information and consider using the “debug” option, if available, with your PAM libraries in /etc/pam.conf to obtain syslog output for debugging purposes.

--with-pam-login
Enable a specific PAM session when sudo is given the -i option. This changes the PAM service name when sudo is run with the -i option from “sudo” to “sudo-i”, allowing for a separate pam configuration for sudo’s initial login mode.
--disable-pam-session
Disable sudo’s PAM session support. This may be needed on older PAM implementations or on operating systems where opening a PAM session changes the utmp or wtmp files. If PAM session support is disabled, resource limits may not be updated for the command being run.
--with-passwd=no, --without-passwd
This option excludes authentication via the passwd (or shadow) file. It should only be used when another, alternative, authentication scheme is in use.
--with-SecurID[=DIR]
Enable SecurID support. If specified, DIR is directory containing libaceclnt.a, acexport.h, and sdacmvls.h.
--with-skey[=DIR]
Enable S/Key OTP (One Time Password) support. If specified, DIR should contain include and lib directories with skey.h and libskey.a respectively.
--disable-sia
Disable SIA support. This is the “Security Integration Architecture” on Digital UNIX. If you disable SIA sudo will use its own authentication routines.
--disable-shadow
Disable shadow password support. Normally, sudo will compile in shadow password support and use a shadow password if it exists.
--enable-gss-krb5-ccache-name
Use the gss_krb5_ccache_name() function to set the Kerberos V credential cache file name. By default, sudo will use the KRB5CCNAME environment variable to set this. While gss_krb5_ccache_name() provides a better API to do this it is not supported by all Kerberos V and SASL combinations.
--enable-gcrypt[=DIR]
Use GNU crypt’s SHA-2 message digest functions instead of OpenSSL or the ones bundled with sudo (or in the system’s C library). If specified, DIR should contain the GNU crypt include and lib directories. This option only has an effect when OpenSSL 1.0.1 or higher is not present on the system or the --disable-openssl option is also specified.
--enable-openssl[=DIR]
Use OpenSSL’s TLS and SHA-2 message digest functions. If it is detected, OpenSSL will be used by default unless the sudo log client and server are disabled via the --disable-log-client and --disable-log-server options. To explicitly disable the use of OpenSSL, the --disable-openssl option can be used. OpenSSL versions prior to 1.0.1 will not be used as they do not support TLS 1.2. If specified, DIR should contain the OpenSSL include and lib directories.
--enable-openssl-pkgconfig-template=template
A printf-style template used to construct the name of the openssl and libcrypto pkg-config files. For example, a template of “e%s30” would cause “eopenssl30” and “libecrypto30” to be used instead. This makes it possible to link with the OpenSSL 3.0 package on OpenBSD. Defaults to “%s”.
--enable-wolfssl[=DIR]
Use wolfSSL’s TLS and SHA-2 message digest functions. If specified, DIR should contain the OpenSSL include and lib directories.

Development options:

--enable-env-debug
Enable debugging of the environment setting functions. This enables extra checks to make sure the environment does not become corrupted.
--enable-postinstall=PATH
Enable the use of a postinstall script that is run after the “install” target but before packages as built as part of the “package” target.
--enable-warnings
Enable compiler warnings when building sudo with gcc or clang.
--enable-werror
Enable the -Werror compiler option when building sudo with gcc or clang.
--with-devel
Configure development options. This will enable compiler warnings and set up the Makefile to be able to regenerate the sudoers parser as well as the manual pages.

Options that set runtime-changeable default values:

--disable-authentication
By default, sudo requires the user to authenticate via a password or similar means. This options causes sudo to not require authentication. It is possible to turn authentication back on in sudoers via the PASSWD attribute.
Sudoers option: !authenticate
--disable-env-reset
Disable environment resetting. This sets the default value of the “env_reset” Defaults option in sudoers to false.
Sudoers option: !env_reset
--disable-path-info
Normally, sudo will tell the user when a command could not be found in their $PATH. Some sites may wish to disable this as it could be used to gather information on the location of executables that the normal user does not have access to. The disadvantage is that if the executable is simply not in the user’s path, sudo will tell the user that they are not allowed to run it, which can be confusing.
Sudoers option: path_info
--disable-root-sudo
Don’t let root run sudo. This can be used to prevent people from “chaining” sudo commands to get a root shell by doing something like sudo sudo /bin/sh.
Sudoers option: !root_sudo
--disable-zlib
Disable the use of the zlib compress library when storing I/O log files.
Sudoers option: !compress_io
--enable-log-host
Log the hostname in the log file.
Sudoers option: log_host
--enable-noargs-shell
If sudo is invoked with no arguments it acts as if the “-s” flag had been given. That is, it runs a shell as root (the shell is determined by the SHELL environment variable, falling back on the shell listed in the invoking user’s /etc/passwd entry).
Sudoers option: shell_noargs
--enable-shell-sets-home
If sudo is invoked with the “-s” flag the HOME environment variable will be set to the home directory of the target user (which is root unless the “-u” option is used). This option effectively makes the “-s” flag imply “-H”.
Sudoers option: set_home
--enable-timestamp-type=TYPE
Set the default time stamp record type. The TYPE may be “global” (a single record per user), “ppid” (a single record for process with the same parent process), or “tty” (a separate record for each login session). The default is “tty”.
Sudoers option: timestamp_type
--with-all-insults
Include all the insult sets listed below. You must either specify --with-insults or enable insults in the sudoers file for this to have any effect.
--with-askpass=PATH
Set PATH as the “askpass” program to use when no tty is available. Typically, this is a graphical password prompter, similar to the one used by ssh. The program must take a prompt as an argument and print the received password to the standard output. This value may overridden at run-time in the sudo.conf file.
--with-badpass-message="MESSAGE"
Message that is displayed if a user enters an incorrect password. The default is “Sorry, try again.” unless insults are turned on.
Sudoers option: badpass_message
--with-badpri=PRIORITY
Determines which syslog priority to log unauthenticated commands and errors. The following priorities are supported: alert, crit, debug, emerg, err, info, notice, and warning.
Sudoers option: syslog_badpri
--with-classic-insults
Uses insults from sudo “classic.” If you just specify --with-insults you will get the classic and CSOps insults. This is on by default if --with-insults is given.
--with-csops-insults
Insults the user with an extra set of insults (some quotes, some original) from a sysadmin group at CU (CSOps). You must specify --with-insults as well for this to have any effect. This is on by default if --with-insults is given.
--with-editor=PATH
Specify the default editor path for use by visudo. This may be a single path name or a colon-separated list of editors. In the latter case, visudo will choose the editor that matches the user’s SUDO_EDITOR, VISUAL or EDITOR environment variable, or the first editor in the list that exists. The default is the path to vi on your system.
Sudoers option: editor
--with-env-editor=no, --without-env-editor
By default, visudo will consult the SUDO_EDITOR, VISUAL, and EDITOR environment variables before falling back on the default editor list (as specified by --with-editor). visudo is typically run as root so this option may allow a user with visudo privileges to run arbitrary commands as root without logging. Some sites may with to disable this and use a colon-separated list of “safe” editors with the --with-editor option. visudo will then only use the SUDO_EDITOR, VISUAL, or EDITOR variables if they match a value specified via --with-editor.
Sudoers option: env_editor
--with-exempt=GROUP
Users in the specified group don’t need to enter a password when running sudo. This may be useful for sites that don’t want their “core” sysadmins to have to enter a password but where Jr. sysadmins need to. You should probably use NOPASSWD in sudoers instead.
Sudoers option: exempt_group
--with-fqdn
Define this if you want to put fully-qualified host names in the sudoers file. Ie: instead of myhost you would use myhost.mydomain.edu. You may still use the short form if you wish (and even mix the two). Beware that turning FQDN on requires sudo to make DNS lookups which may make sudo unusable if your DNS is totally hosed. You must use the host’s official name as DNS knows it. That is, you may not use a host alias (CNAME entry) due to performance issues and the fact that there is no way to get all aliases from DNS.
Sudoers option: fqdn
--with-goodpri=PRIORITY
Determines which syslog priority to log successfully authenticated commands. The following priorities are supported: alert, crit, debug, emerg, err, info, notice, and warning.
Sudoers option: syslog_goodpri
--with-python-insults
Insults the user with lines from “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” when an incorrect password is entered. You must either specify --with-insults or enable insults in the sudoers file for this to have any effect.
--with-goons-insults
Insults the user with lines from the “Goon Show” when an incorrect password is entered. You must either specify --with-insults or enable insults in the sudoers file for this to have any effect.
--with-hal-insults
Uses 2001-like insults when an incorrect password is entered. You must either specify --with-insults or enable insults in the sudoers file for this to have any effect.
--with-ignore-dot
If set, sudo will ignore “.” or "" (current dir) in $PATH. The $PATH itself is not modified.
Sudoers option: ignore_dot
--with-insults
Define this if you want to be insulted for typing an incorrect password just like the original sudo(8). This is off by default.
Sudoers option: insults
--with-insults=disabled
Include support for insults but disable them unless explicitly enabled in sudoers.
Sudoers option: !insults
--with-iologdir[=DIR]
By default, sudo stores I/O log files in either /var/log/sudo-io, /var/adm/sudo-io, or /usr/log/sudo-io. If this option is specified, I/O logs will be stored in the indicated directory instead.
Sudoers option: iolog_dir
--with-lecture=no, --without-lecture
Don’t print the lecture the first time a user runs sudo.
Sudoers option: !lecture
--with-logfac=FACILITY
Determines which syslog facility to log to. This requires a 4.3BSD or later version of syslog. You can still set this for ancient syslogs but it will have no effect. The following facilities are supported: authpriv (if your OS supports it), auth, daemon, user, local0, local1, local2, local3, local4, local5, local6, and local7.
Sudoers option: syslog
--with-logging=TYPE
How you want to do your logging. You may choose “syslog”, “file”, or “both”. Setting this to “syslog” is nice because you can keep all of your sudo logs in one place (see the example syslog.conf file). The default is “syslog”.
Sudoers options: syslog and logfile
--with-loglen=NUMBER
Number of characters per line for the file log. This is only used if you are to “file” or “both”. This value is used to decide when to wrap lines for nicer log files. The default is 80. Setting this to 0 will disable the wrapping.
Sudoers options: loglinelen
--with-logpath=PATH
Override the default location of the sudo log file and use “path” instead. By default will use /var/log/sudo.log if there is a /var/log dir, falling back to /var/adm/sudo.log or /usr/adm/sudo.log if not.
Sudoers option: logfile
--with-long-otp-prompt
When validating with a One Time Password scheme (S/Key or OPIE), a two-line prompt is used to make it easier to cut and paste the challenge to a local window. It’s not as pretty as the default but some people find it more convenient.
Sudoers option: long_otp_prompt
--with-mail-if-no-user=no, --without-mail-if-no-user
Normally, sudo will mail to the “alertmail” user if the user invoking sudo is not in the sudoers file. This option disables that behavior.
Sudoers option: mail_no_user
--with-mail-if-no-host
Send mail to the “alermail” user if the user exists in the sudoers file, but is not allowed to run commands on the current host.
Sudoers option: mail_no_host
--with-mail-if-noperms
Send mail to the “alermail” user if the user is allowed to use sudo but the command they are trying is not listed in their sudoers file entry.
Sudoers option: mail_no_perms
--with-mailsubject="SUBJECT"
Subject of the mail sent to the “mailto” user. The token “%h” will expand to the hostname of the machine. The default value is “*** SECURITY information for %h ***”.
Sudoers option: mailsub
--with-mailto=USER|MAIL_ALIAS
User (or mail alias) that mail from sudo is sent to. This should go to a sysadmin at your site. The default value is “root”.
Sudoers option: mailto
--with-passprompt="PROMPT"
Default prompt to use when asking for a password; can be overridden via the -p option and the SUDO_PROMPT environment variable. Supports the “%H”, “%h”, “%U”, and “%u” escapes as documented in the sudo manual page. The default value is “Password:”.
Sudoers option: passprompt
--with-password-timeout=NUMBER
Number of minutes before the sudo password prompt times out. The default is 5, set this to 0 for no password timeout.
Sudoers option: passwd_timeout
--with-passwd-tries=NUMBER
Number of tries a user gets to enter his/her password before sudo logs the failure and exits. The default is 3.
Sudoers option: passwd_tries
--with-runas-default=USER
The default user to run commands as if the -u flag is not specified on the command line. This defaults to “root”.
Sudoers option: runas_default
--with-secure-path[=PATH]
Path used for every command run from sudo(8). If you don’t trust users to have a reasonable PATH environment variable you may want to use this. Another use is if you want to have the “root path” be separate from the “user path.” You will need to customize the path for your site. This is not applied to users in the group specified by --with-exemptgroup. If you do not specify a path, “/bin:/usr/ucb:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/etc:/etc” is used.
Sudoers option: secure_path
--with-sendmail=PATH
Override configure’s guess as to the location of sendmail.
Sudoers option: mailerpath
--with-sendmail=no, --without-sendmail
Do not use sendmail to mail messages to the “mailto” user. Use only if you don’t run sendmail or the equivalent.
Sudoers options: !mailerpath or !mailto
--with-sudoers-mode=MODE
File mode for the sudoers file (octal). If you wish to NFS-mount the sudoers file this must be group readable. This value may overridden at run-time in the sudo.conf file. The default mode is 0440.
--with-sudoers-uid=UID
User id that “owns” the sudoers file. This is the numeric id, not the symbolic name. This value may overridden at run-time in the sudo.conf file. The default is 0.
--with-sudoers-gid=GID
Group id that “owns” the sudoers file. This is the numeric id, not the symbolic name. This value may overridden at run-time in the sudo.conf file. The default is 0.
--with-timeout=NUMBER
Number of minutes that can elapse before sudo will ask for a passwd again. The default is 5, set it to 0 to always prompt for a password.
Sudoers option: timestamp_timeout
--with-umask=MASK
Umask to use when running the root command. The default is 0022.
Sudoers option: umask
--with-umask=no, --without-umask
Preserves the umask of the user invoking sudo.
Sudoers option: !umask
--with-umask-override
Use the umask specified in sudoers even if it is less restrictive than the user’s. The default is to use the intersection of the user’s umask and the umask specified in sudoers.
Sudoers option: umask_override

OS dependent notes

HP-UX

The default C compiler shipped with HP-UX is not an ANSI compiler. You must use either the HP ANSI C compiler or gcc to build sudo. Binary packages of gcc are available from http://hpux.connect.org.uk/.

To prevent PAM from overriding the value of umask on HP-UX 11, you will need to add a line like the following to /etc/pam.conf:

sudo	session	required	libpam_hpsec.so.1 bypass_umask

Linux

PAM and LDAP headers are not installed by default on most Linux systems. You will need to install the “pam-dev” (rpm) or libpam0g-dev (deb) package if /usr/include/security/pam_appl.h is not present on your system. If you wish to build with LDAP support you will also need the “openldap-devel” (rpm) or “libldap2-dev” (deb) package.

macOS

The pseudo-tty support in the Darwin kernel has bugs related to its handling of the SIGTSTP, SIGTTIN, and SIGTTOU signals. It does not restart reads and writes when those signals are delivered. This may cause problems for some commands when I/O logging is enabled. The issue has been reported to Apple and is bug id #7952709.

Solaris

You need to have a C compiler in order to build sudo. Since Solaris does not come with one by default this means that you either need to either install the Solaris Studio compiler suite, available for free from www.oracle.com, or install the GNU C compiler (gcc) which can be installed via the pkg utility on Solaris 11 and higher and is distributed on the Solaris Companion CD for older Solaris releases. You can also download gcc packages from https://www.opencsw.org/packages/CSWgcc4core/.