How to Create a Sudo User on FreeBSD

Install Sudo

You will be able to install this from the ports collections if it is installed on your system. To do this, enter the following command:

# cd /usr/ports/security/sudo/
# make install clean

You can also install the sudo binary package using pkg:

# pkg install sudo

Add a Sudo User

First you need to create a user account to use with sudo

# adduser

Answer the questions from the suggested options to create a user. This tutorial will use user.example

Add User to Wheel Group

This group called “Wheel” limits the list of users who can use root

# pw group mod wheel -m user.example

Edit the sudoers file

First, you need to check the sudoers file with visudo extension

# visudo

Look for a wheelset. Remove comment if line is off. When you’re ready to save the file, it should look like this

## Allows people in group wheel to run all commands
%wheel  ALL=(ALL)       ALL

Save and exit vi. ESC type, then : W Q, then ENTER

IMPORTANT! The visudo utility performs a syntax check before making changes to the file. The wrong sudoers file can break your system. Never edit /etc/sudoers directly. For example, if you make a mistake, you will see this when exiting visudo.

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