Isso é bem explicado em a sudo
manpage . A descrição de -e
(que sudoedit
é equivalente a) diz:
-e
The -e
(edit) option indicates that, instead of running a command, the user wishes to edit one or more files. In lieu of a command, the string "sudoedit
" is used when consulting the security policy. If the user is authorized by the policy, the following steps are taken:
- Temporary copies are made of the files to be edited with the owner set to the invoking user.
- The editor specified by the policy is run to edit the temporary files. The
sudoers
policy uses the SUDO_EDITOR
, VISUAL
and EDITOR
environment variables (in that order). If none of SUDO_EDITOR
, VISUAL
or EDITOR
are set, the first program listed in the editor sudoers(5)
option is used.
- If they have been modified, the temporary files are copied back to their original location and the temporary versions are removed.
If the specified file does not exist, it will be created. Note that unlike most commands run by sudo
, the editor is run with the invoking user's environment unmodified. If, for some reason, sudo
is unable to update a file with its edited version, the user will receive a warning and the edited copy will remain in a temporary file.
Em particular, observe a terceira etapa: somente se o arquivo tiver sido modificado no final da edição, o original será alterado. Portanto, se você tiver um programa que observe um arquivo, isso pode ajudar a evitar (a) gravações intermediárias sendo selecionadas e (b) ações desnecessárias se você decidir não fazer alterações no final.