sudo¶

Easily prefix your current or previous commands with sudo by pressing esc twice.

To use it, add sudo to the plugins array in your zshrc file:

plugins=(... sudo)

Usage¶

Current typed commands¶

Say you have typed a long command and forgot to add sudo in front:

$ apt-get install build-essential

By pressing the esc key twice, you will have the same command with sudo prefixed without typing:

$ sudo apt-get install build-essential

The same happens for editing files with your default editor (defined in $SUDO_EDITOR, $VISUAL or $EDITOR, in that order):

If the editor defined were vim:

$ vim /etc/hosts

By pressing the esc key twice, you will have the same command with sudo -e instead of the editor, that would open that editor with root privileges:

$ sudo -e /etc/hosts

Previous executed commands¶

Say you want to delete a system file and denied:

$ rm some-system-file.txt
-su: some-system-file.txt: Permission denied
$

By pressing the esc key twice, you will have the same command with sudo prefixed without typing:

$ rm some-system-file.txt
-su: some-system-file.txt: Permission denied
$ sudo rm some-system-file.txt
Password:
$

The same happens for file editing, as told before.

Key binding¶

By default, the sudo plugin uses EscEsc as the trigger. If you want to change it, you can use the bindkey command to bind it to a different key:

bindkey -M emacs '<seq>' sudo-command-line
bindkey -M vicmd '<seq>' sudo-command-line
bindkey -M viins '<seq>' sudo-command-line

where <seq> is the sequence you want to use. You can find the keyboard sequence by running cat and pressing the keyboard combination you want to use.