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Password Prompt timer

Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2011 12:31 am
by Razor23259
Hello; I am new to this forum, but have been running, and loving, LM for quite awhile.

I will start to say that my question is either obvious or impossible; I don't know, simply because I can't seem to find a good way to phrase my query in a 'Google-friendly' way. The title only tells so much, and you can see how irrelevant results can surmise from it.

Anyway, I use the terminal a lot for simple things, like updating and hardware functions (like, restarting via 'init'). And There is, of course, a prompt for password. There is a certain time-frame in which it will except root commands without a password prompt, to which I'm delighted when I fall under; I only ask if there is a way to extend that time-frame (from, a minute to ten minutes, for example) for pure convenience. Once in a blue moon someone will use my computer, and about 98% of those people look at me funny when the terminal appears.

If anyone can offer a simple lesson, it would be appreciated :)

Regards, Raz

Re: Password Prompt timer

Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2011 6:13 am
by remoulder
This is not really a bash question so this post would be better in a different forum. Before you make any changes wrt root access, you need to seriously read up on the implications of doing so. Whilst you may think it an inconvenience to have to enter your password there are good reasons for it, and in general you only need to be root to change entire system related things and most user things can be done without needing root permissions. To answer your question search the ubuntu forums for sudo timeout and you should find the answer.

Re: Password Prompt timer

Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2011 10:36 am
by xenopeek
remoulder is right, be careful with this. The Ubuntu guide to this is here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RootS ... do_timeout. Following the link there to read how to change this, but I suggest you read the page I linked as this has a lot of useful information on sudo.

If you want to remain working on the same terminal, but want to end the timeout for sudo so the next sudo command will need a password again, run "sudo -k".

Re: Password Prompt timer

Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2011 1:36 pm
by Razor23259
Thanks for the replies; I thought it would be on the wrong forum, but I wasn't really sure where to put it.

I'll try those suggestions, and I do know the implications of staying on root. I'm not an idiot.

Re: Password Prompt timer

Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2011 1:57 pm
by xenopeek
Just a friendly warning. I can't speak for remoulder, but I know I've run things as root that I didn't mean to :wink: