Run apt-get without sudo

This might be a very naive question, but I wanted to know how I could give multiple users access to a single computer without making them root users. How would I give them limitted sudo access such that they could still issue commands like

sudo apt-get install epstopdf

I imagine this could be an incredibly stupid question as once root user access is given, they could do whatever they want. Therefore, is there any way around this? I am open to suggestions

Solution 1:

Open a terminal and type sudo visudo. At the end of the file (really the last line in it) type %yourusername% ALL=NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/apt-get install where %yourusername% is replaced by your username.

After that you wont be prompted for a password to use sudo apt-get install anymore but please understand this is a very risky solution, there is a reason why you need to type a password for some commands, the use of these commands without password can leave your system open for some dangers. Use with caution.

Solution 2:

sudo is exactly made for that. By editing the sudoers file you can give users specific privileges. See the manual page of sudoers(5) for details.

Solution 3:

From my answer to similar question on the Linux stachkexchange: link

For me the option with visodo required additional steps:

1. Add yourself to the sudousers:

Login as root via su -, open sudo editor by visudo and add next lines:

%yourusername% ALL=NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/apt-get install
%yourusername% ALL=NOPASSWD: /var/lib/dpkg/lock-frontend

2. Exit session(root and yours) typing exit <Enter> exit <\Enter>

3. Reopen it and type:

    sudo chown  %yourusername%: /var/lib/dpkg/lock-frontend
    chmod  u+w /var/lib/dpkg/lock-frontend 
    sudo chown  %yourusername%: /var/lib/dpkg/lock
    chmod  u+w /var/lib/dpkg/lock
    sudo chown  %yourusername%: /var/cache/apt/archives/lock
    chmod  u+w /var/cache/apt/archives/lock
    sudo chown  %yourusername%:  /var/lib/apt/lists/lock
    chmod  u+w  /var/lib/apt/lists/lock
   

PS: I also added the visudo file lines to allow myself to update repos list:

%yourusername% ALL=NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/apt-get update