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Roger Lipscombe
Asked: 2017-12-14 06:13:40 +0800 CST

Does 'sudo' extend its timeout every time you use it?

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If I use sudo, and type my password in, I can continue to use sudo without my password for 15 minutes.

I know (per man sudoers) that I can edit the timeout by setting the timestamp_timeout value in /etc/sudoers. That's not my question.

My question is this: is that timeout counted from the first time I use sudo, or is it refreshed every time I use sudo?

sudo foo    # at T; prompts for a password
sudo bar    # at T+10m; no password required
sudo baz    # at T+20m; does this prompt?
sudo

1 Answers

  1. It's restarted every time you enter a sudo command. This is easy to test. Try setting the timeout to like 2 minutes... if you don't have your timeout extended when you redo a sudo command within 15 seconds of the timeout ending (Try using an egg timer or whatever), then I'm wrong :)

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