How to add an existing user to the sudo group?
Jun 22, 2025 am 12:25 AMThe most common way to grant administrator privileges to ordinary users in Linux systems is to add them to the sudo group or wheel group. The specific steps are as follows: 1. Use the sudo usermod -aG sudo username command to add the user to the sudo group (for Debian/Ubuntu systems); 2. For CentOS/RHEL systems, use sudo usermod -aG wheel username and enable the %wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL configuration; 3. Use the groups username command to confirm whether the user has successfully joined the corresponding group; 4. Switch to the user and execute sudo ls /root to verify whether the permission is effective; if you encounter problems, you can check whether the group name is correct, whether the configuration file is enabled, and view the system log to obtain error clues.
In Linux systems, if you already have a normal user account and want to give it administrator rights, the most common method is to add this user to sudo
group. In this way, the user can use the sudo
command to perform operations that require root permissions.
The following are several common methods, you can choose the appropriate method according to your system environment.
Use the usermod command to add users to the sudo group
This is the most direct way. In most Debian or Ubuntu-based systems, sudo
group already exists, just add the user:
sudo usermod -aG sudo username
-
-aG
means "append to group" and will not affect the user's existing permissions of other groups. -
username
is the user name you want to add.
Note: After the modification, the user needs to log in again to take effect, because the group information is loaded when logging in.
Using wheel groups in CentOS/RHEL systems
Some distributions (such as CentOS, RHEL) use wheel
groups instead of sudo
groups by default. You need to add the user to this group:
sudo usermod -aG wheel username
Also make sure wheel
group permissions are enabled in the /etc/sudoers
file. You can check if this line exists and uncomment it:
%wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL
If you are not sure which group to use, you can use
groups username
to view the administrator group naming method of the current system.
Check if the user has joined the sudo group
You can confirm whether a user has been correctly added to sudo
or wheel
group by following the following command:
groups username
The output should contain the corresponding group name. For example:
username : usergroup sudo
If you do not see the relevant group name, it means that the addition has failed or has not taken effect.
Verify that sudo permissions are in effect
Switch to the target user and try to execute a command that requires sudo
, such as:
sudo ls /root
If the system prompts for a password and the content can be listed successfully, it means that the permission has taken effect.
If you encounter an error in permission denied or the user is not in the sudoers file, it may be because:
- The user is not added to the group correctly;
- The group name used is inconsistent with the system default;
-
/etc/sudoers
file is configured incorrectly.
You can check /var/log/auth.log
(Ubuntu/Debian) or /var/log/secure
(CentOS/RHEL) for more clues.
Basically these steps. Although it seems simple, pay attention to the slight differences in the details of different systems, especially the group name and configuration file location. Just don't mess it up.
The above is the detailed content of How to add an existing user to the sudo group?. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!

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