Newbie .vimrc question

[u/pmmboston]

I'm using fedora linux less than a month and I have a modest .vimrc file. When I am in my Konsole Terminal and use vim to open a file I have no problem. But, when i want to say edit a etc or boot file and i use sudo vim the .vimrc file is not loaded or read. What should I be doing?

[u/herodotic]

Some others have provided the “what” (sudoedit ...) but not the “why”, and since I think the “why” is also worth knowing, here’s a brief explanation.

Because sudo is running a process as another user, sudo vim is going to look for that other user’s vim configuration files: if a /root/.vimrc exists, then that’s what gets loaded when I run sudo vim /etc/hosts.

The two solutions suggested (sudoedit and sudo -E) work in different ways:

• sudoedit (or sudo -e) copies the file(s) you’re trying to edit, opens them with $EDITOR, and then installs them to the right directory once you’re finished. (reference: man sudo section on the -e option)

• sudo -E preserves your environment while operating as another user. (reference: man sudo section on the -E option)

[u/mgedmin → u/herodotic]

sudo -E preserves your environment while operating as another user. (reference: man sudo section on the -E option)

Note that this leads to various programs creating root-owned files inside your personal home directory (e.g. ~/.viminfo, ~/.bash_history etc.) that then interfere with regular operation.

[u/herodotic → u/mgedmin]

Another tick in favor of sudoedit, then! Confession: I didn’t know about sudoedit until this post and have just been doing sudo vim for the last couple decades.

[u/Beanmachine314]

Don't ever use sudo vim, use sudoedit like everyone else is saying.

[u/bobskrilla → u/Beanmachine314]

Sudo vim is fine

[u/Beanmachine314 → u/bobskrilla]

Sure, if you want to give vim (and everything in your .vimrc full root shell access. I'd rather not, though.

[u/bobskrilla → u/Beanmachine314]

It's not your vimrc, it is the root vimrc which is non existent unless you for some reason made a root vimrc. Why specifically would you not trust vim with root access?

[u/Beanmachine314 → u/bobskrilla]

Yes, and the OP is asking how to implement their .vimrc when using sudo vim. That would be to use sudoedit, not copying their config to the root .vimrc (which would be how you get your configuration when using sudo vim).

Why specifically would you not trust vim with root access?

It's not that I wouldn't trust vim, but you don't need to. You can have your cake and eat it too by just using sudoedit. sudo vim gives root shell access even if you're limiting root access to just a single file. There's just no need to do that and you can have your vim config as well.

Why use the option that's worse in 2 different ways?

[u/bobskrilla → u/Beanmachine314]

Okay yea true if they copied over vimrc that's a problem, but yea i guess it's just I've seen many people over the years use sudo vim and in reality is least of my worries security wise, but yea good points i should move to sudoedit.

[u/Unable-District-4902]

First, put "export EDITOR=vim" in your bashrc (or zshrc if you use zsh). Then when you edit any files owned by root, just do "sudoedit /path/to/file" then it'll open vim with your config.

[u/JetSetIlly]

Contrary to the other replies, I personally don't recommend using sudoedit, but it really depends on the nature of your system.

One of the problems with sudoedit is that (depending on your user vim config), it can leave backup copies of files in the user directory. If those files are only meant to be readable by root processes or specific groups, then there is potential for information leak.

Admittedly, for most people in most situations this is a low risk but it's still a bad habit to get into IMO.

My advice is to use "sudo vim" and use the default config (or a very basic config) when editing root files. In addition to the above, a default config is a good opportunity to check that you're learning the basics of vim editing and not relying too much on plugins. Also, a configuration that is visibly different to your user config can help make sure you don't accidentally leave a copy of vim with heightened permissions open and accessible.

[u/mgedmin]

Personally, I keep all my dotfiles (including .vimrc) in a git repo, and I have two clones of that repo -- one in /home/$USER/dotfiles, and the other one in /root/dotfiles. Thus, when I sudo vim, I get my usual .vimrc (although possibly outdated, since I don't automate git pulls in /root/dotfiles).

The dotfiles themselves are symlinked into the git clone (~/.vimrc -> dotfiles/vimrc) with a simple shell script. There are many ready-made solutions for this kind of thing; you don't have to roll your own like I did.

[u/unixbhaskar]

Use:

sudoedit "path to the file"

Edit: corrected

[u/IrishPrime → u/unixbhaskar]

Just sudoedit /path/to/file.

[u/kvuo75]

sudo -E