Manual: sudoreplay.ws
SUDOREPLAY(8) System Manager's Manual SUDOREPLAY(8)
NAME
sudoreplay — replay sudo session logs
SYNOPSIS
sudoreplay [-FhnRS] [-d dir] [-f filter] [-m num] [-s num] ID[@offset]
sudoreplay [-h] [-d dir] -l [search expression]
DESCRIPTION
sudoreplay plays back or lists the output logs created by sudo. When replaying, sudoreplay can play the session back
in real-time, or the playback speed may be adjusted (faster or slower) based on the command line options.
The ID should either be a six character sequence of digits and upper case letters, e.g., “0100A5” or a path name.
The ID may include an optional @offset suffix which may be used to start replaying at a specific time offset. The
@offset is specified as a number in seconds since the start of the session with an optional decimal fraction.
Path names may be relative to the I/O log directory /var/log/sudo-io (unless overridden by the -d option) or fully
qualified, beginning with a ‘/’ character. When a command is run via sudo with log_output enabled in the sudoers
file, a “TSID=ID” string is logged via syslog(3) or to the sudo log file. The ID may also be determined using
sudoreplay's list mode.
In list mode, sudoreplay can be used to find the ID of a session based on a number of criteria such as the user, tty,
or command run.
In replay mode, if the standard input and output are connected to a terminal and the -n option is not specified,
sudoreplay will operate interactively. In interactive mode, sudoreplay will attempt to adjust the terminal size to
match that of the session and write directly to the terminal (not all terminals support this). Additionally, it will
poll the keyboard and act on the following keys:
‘\n’ or ‘\r’ Skip to the next replay event; useful for long pauses.
‘ ’ (space) Pause output; press any key to resume.
‘<’ Reduce the playback speed by one half.
‘>’ Double the playback speed.
The session can be interrupted via control-C. When the session has finished, the terminal is restored to its origi‐
nal size if it was changed during playback.
The options are as follows:
-d dir, --directory=dir
Store session logs in dir instead of the default, /var/log/sudo-io.
-f filter, --filter=filter
Select which I/O type(s) to display. By default, sudoreplay will display the command's standard output,
standard error, and tty output. The filter argument is a comma-separated list, consisting of one or more of
following: stdin, stdout, stderr, ttyin, and ttyout.
-F, --follow
Enable “follow mode”. When replaying a session, sudoreplay will ignore end-of-file and keep replaying until
the log is complete. This can be used to replay a session that is still in progress, similar to “tail -f”.
An I/O log file is considered to be complete when the write bits have been cleared on the session's timing
file. Versions of sudo prior to 1.9.1 do not clear the write bits upon completion.
-h, --help
Display a short help message to the standard output and exit.
-l, --list [search expression]
Enable “list mode”. In this mode, sudoreplay will list available sessions in a format similar to the sudo
log file format, sorted by file name (or sequence number). Any control characters present in the log data
are formatted in octal with a leading ‘#’ character. For example, a horizontal tab is displayed as ‘#011’
and an embedded carriage return is displayed as ‘#015’. Space characters in the command name and arguments
are also formatted in octal.
If a search expression is specified, it will be used to restrict the IDs that are displayed. An expression
is composed of the following predicates:
command pattern
Evaluates to true if the command run matches the POSIX extended regular expression pattern.
cwd directory
Evaluates to true if the command was run with the specified current working directory.
fromdate date
Evaluates to true if the command was run on or after date. See “Date and time format” for a descrip‐
tion of supported date and time formats.
group runas_group
Evaluates to true if the command was run with the specified runas_group. Unless a runas_group was
explicitly specified when sudo was run this field will be empty in the log.
host hostname
Evaluates to true if the command was run on the specified hostname.
runas runas_user
Evaluates to true if the command was run as the specified runas_user. By default, sudo runs commands
as the root user.
todate date
Evaluates to true if the command was run on or prior to date. See “Date and time format” for a de‐
scription of supported date and time formats.
tty tty name
Evaluates to true if the command was run on the specified terminal device. The tty name should be
specified without the /dev/ prefix, e.g., tty01 instead of /dev/tty01.
user user name
Evaluates to true if the ID matches a command run by user name.
Predicates may be abbreviated to the shortest unique string.
Predicates may be combined using and, or, and ! operators as well as ‘(’ and ‘)’ grouping (parentheses must
generally be escaped from the shell). The and operator is optional, adjacent predicates have an implied and
unless separated by an or.
-m, --max-wait max_wait
Specify an upper bound on how long to wait between key presses or output data. By default, sudoreplay will
accurately reproduce the delays between key presses or program output. However, this can be tedious when the
session includes long pauses. When the -m option is specified, sudoreplay will limit these pauses to at most
max_wait seconds. The value may be specified as a floating point number, e.g., 2.5. A max_wait of zero or
less will eliminate the pauses entirely.
-n, --non-interactive
Do not prompt for user input or attempt to re-size the terminal. The session is written to the standard out‐
put, not directly to the user's terminal.
-R, --no-resize
Do not attempt to re-size the terminal to match the terminal size of the session.
-S, --suspend-wait
Wait while the command was suspended. By default, sudoreplay will ignore the time interval between when the
command was suspended and when it was resumed. If the -S option is specified, sudoreplay will wait instead.
-s, --speed speed_factor
This option causes sudoreplay to adjust the number of seconds it will wait between key presses or program
output. This can be used to slow down or speed up the display. For example, a speed_factor of 2 would make
the output twice as fast whereas a speed_factor of .5 would make the output twice as slow.
-V, --version
Print the sudoreplay versions version number and exit.
Date and time format
The time and date may be specified multiple ways, common formats include:
HH:MM:SS am MM/DD/CCYY timezone
24 hour time may be used in place of am/pm.
HH:MM:SS am Month, Day Year timezone
24 hour time may be used in place of am/pm, and month and day names may be abbreviated. Month and day of the
week names must be specified in English.
CCYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS
ISO time format
DD Month CCYY HH:MM:SS
The month name may be abbreviated.
Either time or date may be omitted, the am/pm and timezone are optional. If no date is specified, the current day is
assumed; if no time is specified, the first second of the specified date is used. The less significant parts of both
time and date may also be omitted, in which case zero is assumed.
The following are all valid time and date specifications:
now The current time and date.
tomorrow
Exactly one day from now.
yesterday
24 hours ago.
2 hours ago
2 hours ago.
next Friday
The first second of the Friday in the next (upcoming) week. Not to be confused with “this Friday” which
would match the Friday of the current week.
last week
The current time but 7 days ago. This is equivalent to “a week ago”.
a fortnight ago
The current time but 14 days ago.
10:01 am 9/17/2009
10:01 am, September 17, 2009.
10:01 am
10:01 am on the current day.
10 10:00 am on the current day.
9/17/2009
00:00 am, September 17, 2009.
10:01 am Sep 17, 2009
10:01 am, September 17, 2009.
Relative time specifications do not always work as expected. For example, the “next” qualifier is intended to be
used in conjunction with a day such as “next Monday”. When used with units of weeks, months, years, etc the result
will be one more than expected. For example, “next week” will result in a time exactly two weeks from now, which is
probably not what was intended. This will be addressed in a future version of sudoreplay.
Debugging sudoreplay
sudoreplay versions 1.8.4 and higher support a flexible debugging framework that is configured via Debug lines in the
sudo.conf(5) file.
For more information on configuring sudo.conf(5), refer to its manual.
FILES
/etc/sudo.conf Debugging framework configuration
/var/log/sudo-io The default I/O log directory.
/var/log/sudo-io/00/00/01/log
Example session log info.
/var/log/sudo-io/00/00/01/log.json
Example session log info (JSON format).
/var/log/sudo-io/00/00/01/stdin
Example session standard input log.
/var/log/sudo-io/00/00/01/stdout
Example session standard output log.
/var/log/sudo-io/00/00/01/stderr
Example session standard error log.
/var/log/sudo-io/00/00/01/ttyin
Example session tty input file.
/var/log/sudo-io/00/00/01/ttyout
Example session tty output file.
/var/log/sudo-io/00/00/01/timing
Example session timing file.
The stdin, stdout and stderr files will be empty unless sudo was used as part of a pipeline for a particular command.
EXAMPLES
List sessions run by user millert:
# sudoreplay -l user millert
List sessions run by user bob with a command containing the string vi:
# sudoreplay -l user bob command vi
List sessions run by user jeff that match a regular expression:
# sudoreplay -l user jeff command '/bin/[a-z]*sh'
List sessions run by jeff or bob on the console:
# sudoreplay -l ( user jeff or user bob ) tty console
SEE ALSO
script(1), sudo.conf(5), sudo(8)
AUTHORS
Many people have worked on sudo over the years; this version consists of code written primarily by:
Todd C. Miller
See the CONTRIBUTORS.md file in the sudo distribution (https://www.sudo.ws/about/contributors/) for an exhaustive
list of people who have contributed to sudo.
BUGS
If you believe you have found a bug in sudoreplay, you can either file a bug report in the sudo bug database,
https://bugzilla.sudo.ws/, or open an issue at https://github.com/sudo-project/sudo/issues. If you would prefer to
use email, messages may be sent to the sudo-workers mailing list, https://www.sudo.ws/mailman/listinfo/sudo-workers
(public) or (private).
Please do not report security vulnerabilities through public GitHub issues, Bugzilla or mailing lists. Instead, re‐
port them via email to . You may encrypt your message with PGP if you would like, using the key
found at https://www.sudo.ws/dist/PGPKEYS.
SUPPORT
Limited free support is available via the sudo-users mailing list, see https://www.sudo.ws/mailman/listinfo/sudo-
users to subscribe or search the archives.
DISCLAIMER
sudoreplay is provided “AS IS” and any express or implied warranties, including, but not limited to, the implied war‐
ranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose are disclaimed. See the LICENSE.md file distributed
with sudo or https://www.sudo.ws/about/license/ for complete details.
Sudo 1.9.17p2 January 16, 2023 SUDOREPLAY(8)