gksudo

Graphical frontend for sudo with GTK password dialog

TLDR

Run a command as a specific user

$ gksudo -u [userid] [command]

Run the command while preserving the current environment

$ gksudo -u [userid] -k [command]

Force gksudo to use su to run the command

$ gksudo -u [userid] -w [command]

Force gksudo to use sudo to run the command

$ gksudo -u [userid] -S [command]

Output debug info for the given command

$ gksudo -u [userid] -d [command]

Ask gksudo to print the password to stdout

$ gksudo -p [command]

gksudo is a graphical frontend for `sudo` that prompts for a password using a GTK dialog. It is essentially `gksu` configured to use sudo-mode by default, authenticating with the current user's password and sudo privileges.This allows running graphical applications with elevated privileges while using sudo's configuration for permission control.

DEPRECATED: gksudo is no longer maintained and has security issues. Use pkexec from PolicyKit for graphical privilege escalation instead.

PARAMETERS

-u, --user USER

Run command as specified user (default: root)

-k, --preserve-env

Preserve current environment variables, does not set `$HOME` or `$PATH`

-l, --login

Make this a login shell (may cause problems with Xauthority)

-w, --su-mode

Force use of su for authentication

-S, --sudo-mode

Force use of sudo for authentication (default)

-d, --debug

Output debug information

-g, --disable-grab

Disable locking of the keyboard, mouse, and focus while asking for the password

-P, --prompt

Ask the user before grabbing the keyboard and mouse

-m, --message MSG

Custom message in password dialog

-D, --description DESC|FILE

Description for the command being run, used in the default message

-p, --print-pass

Print the password to stdout, like ssh-askpass

CAVEATS

Deprecated and unmaintained. Running graphical applications as root can cause permission problems with user config files and X authority. Modern systems discourage running GUI applications as root.

HISTORY

gksudo was created alongside gksu for Ubuntu and other distributions that preferred sudo over su for privilege escalation. Both were deprecated around 2012 in favor of PolicyKit's pkexec mechanism.

RESOURCES

Debian manual page (archived)