Subject: bug#11194: 24.0.95; sudo rm doesn't work with absolute directory paths on the file system

From: Michael Albinus <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 09 Apr 2012 20:08:15 +0200

Stefan Monnier <[email-masked]> writes:

>>> For example, if you went to eshell and typed 'sudo rm -rf
>>> /opt/folder' it would complain about permissions being needed and
>>> wouldn't query for password. Bug doesn't exist with relative paths.
>>> Bug does exist with wildcards.
>> If you want to use absolute paths in eshell, you should apply
>> rm -rf /sudo::/opt/folder
>
> While using Tramp might make sense, I think that "sudo rm -rf /foo/bar"
> is a perfectly valid command and wonder why it wouldn't work correctly.

In eshell, `sudo' is an built-in for `eshell/sudo':

~ $ which sudo
eshell/sudo is a compiled Lisp function in `em-unix.el'

In order to call the native sudo, one must apply

*sudo rm -rf /opt/folder

See also (info "(eshell)Built-ins")

>         Stefan

Best regards, Michael.