How can I run sudo gedit as gksu gedit

Question

I'm looking into ways of automatically loading Gedit as gksu gedit when I enter sudo gedit by mistake?

I have found that I have made a number of files unreachable by using gedit and I have only just found out why!

ACHIEVED SO FAR

I have written a script which will make an alias so that if I type in sudo <application> it can automatically convert that to gksu <application> but I want to make this alias stick, so that I don't have to run the script every time I boot the computer.

Is there a config file I can edit or should I run this script as a start up script (which would be inconvenient!)?

Solution 1

Open .bashrc file
gedit ~/.bashrc

Add following alias
alias sudo='gksu'

Now restart terminal to start using the alias.

Only add alias gedit='gksu gedit' if you want gksu only for gedit.
echo 'alias gedit='gksu gedit' >> ~/.bashrc

Solution 2

You could make a smart function that will transform automatically sudo to gksu when the command following it is in a set of pre-programmed functions like so: in your .bashrc add:

sudo_to_gksu=( "gedit" "nautilus" )
sudo() {
    local sudo=$(which sudo)
    local f
    for f in "${sudo_to_gksu[@]}"; do
        if [[ $1 = $f ]]; then
            sudo=gksu
            break
        fi
    done
    "$sudo" "$@"
}

So when you type sudo followed by gedit or nautilus, it will automatically change the sudo to gksu, and otherwise it will leave the sudo. Add some more programs in the array sudo_to_gksu if you wish. You can also extend this to also have gksudo instead of gksu if you wish.

This might have some side effects... let me know if it's the case!

Hope this helps!

Comments

[SimplySimon]

Brilliant, I just found the same answer after spending days searching in the wrong place :)

[totti]

Add alias gedit='gksu gedit' if u want gksu only for gedit. (Remove the earlier)

[SimplySimon]

it's good for sudo nautilus, sudo dolphin as well so I think I'll leave the original alias :)

[SimplySimon]

I have updated to alias gedit='gksu gedit' as I had problems with sudo apt-get autoremove not completing

[SimplySimon]

I'll try this out, it looks very flexible. Thank you