Grant full root permissions to an user

Question

In /etc/sudoers I added:
%myuser ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL

Now if I type sudo apt update I don' t need to type the password.
But I want full root permissions: namely, I want to use only apt update.
The apt is an example i want FULL ROOT PERMISSIONS, another example is to be able to create/modify files everywhere.

I tried to use the root line (root ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL) in the myuser line but nothing:
%myuser ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL

This is my /etc/sudoers file:

#
# This file MUST be edited with the 'visudo' command as root.
#
# Please consider adding local content in /etc/sudoers.d/ instead of
# directly modifying this file.
#
# See the man page for details on how to write a sudoers file.
#
Defaults        env_reset
Defaults        mail_badpass
Defaults        secure_path="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/snap/bin"
Host alias specification
User alias specification
Cmnd alias specification
User privilege specification
root    ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL
scorpion  ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL
Members of the admin group may gain root privileges
%admin ALL=(ALL) ALL
Allow members of group sudo to execute any command
%sudo   ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL
See sudoers(5) for more information on "#include" directives:
#includedir /etc/sudoers.d
%scorpion ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL

Answer 1

The more secure way to run apt update with root privileges, without typing sudo apt update, would be to add an alias for apt to your user's profile:

• alias apt='sudo apt'

Then, whenever you run apt update, or apt upgrade, or apt install <pkg>, the apt command will be run with root privileges. But other commands will just run as your normal user, with normal user privileges.

---

Now, Acknowledging that there are valid reasons why we don't just run all users with root permissions, the following is a way you can give a user all the same permissions as root, that doesn't use sudo.

• Change the user's UID and GID to 0 with usermod -ou 0 -g 0 <username>

This will change everything your <username> user does to run with root permissions. Everything.

Yes. I know this is massively insecure. But, it does answer the question.

If you choose this route, please do it on a system you don't mind re-installing from time to time. Running everything as root can end up having unforeseen consequences.

Answer 2

You can type sudo -i, then you get an interactive root shell and don't have to type sudo before each command.

Answer 3

Using Gentoo's /etc/sudoers file as a default, you have two options:

Option 1:

---

## sudoers file.
.. snip ..
## User privilege specification
##
root ALL=(ALL) ALL
## Add your user here.  This allows you to run all commands as root, 
## not just the update commands.
scorpion ALL=(ALL) ALL
.. snip ..

Option 2:

---

## sudoers file.
.. snip ..
## User alias specification
##
## Groups of users.  These may consist of user names, uids, Unix groups,
## or netgroups.
# User_Alias    ADMINS = millert, dowdy, mikef
User_Alias  UPDATERS = scorpion
##
## Cmnd alias specification
##
## Groups of commands.  Often used to group related commands together.
# Cmnd_Alias    PROCESSES = /usr/bin/nice, /bin/kill, /usr/bin/renice, \
#               /usr/bin/pkill, /usr/bin/top
# Cmnd_Alias    REBOOT = /sbin/halt, /sbin/reboot, /sbin/poweroff
Cmnd_Alias  UPDATE = /path/to/apt-get, /path/to/apt
.. snip ..
##
## User privilege specification
##
root ALL=(ALL) ALL
UPDATERS ALL=NOPASSWD: UPDATE

---

Notes

1. This example assumes your username is scorpion.
2. I assume the path to all the apt commands are in /sbin but Gentoo doesn't use apt or apt-get so don't forget to edit.
3. This can be done without adding Command Aliases, and User Aliases, but IMHO, the aliases make it easier to add commands, and to debug if needed.