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 op-
tional @offset suffix which may be used to start replaying at a spe-
cific 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 en-
abled 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 original 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 consid-
ered 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 avail-
able sessions in a format similar to the sudo log file format,
sorted by file name (or sequence number). Any control charac-
ters present in the log data are formatted in octal with a
leading ‘#’ character. For example, a horizontal tab is dis-
played 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 re-
strict 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 spec-
ified current working directory.
fromdate date
Evaluates to true if the command was run on or after
date. See “Date and time format” for a description of
supported date and time formats.
group runas_group
Evaluates to true if the command was run with the spec-
ified 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 speci-
fied hostname.
runas runas_user
Evaluates to true if the command was run as the speci-
fied 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 description of
supported date and time formats.
tty tty name
Evaluates to true if the command was run on the speci-
fied 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 es-
caped 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 repro-
duce the delays between key presses or program output. How-
ever, 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 termi-
nal. The session is written to the standard output, not di-
rectly 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 sus-
pended 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 in-
clude:
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 op-
tional. 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 exam-
ple, 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 submit a bug
report at https://bugzilla.sudo.ws/
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 warranties of merchantabil-
ity and fitness for a particular purpose are disclaimed. See the LI-
CENSE.md file distributed with sudo or https://www.sudo.ws/about/li-
cense/ for complete details.
Sudo 1.9.15p5 January 16, 2023 SUDOREPLAY(8)
Generated by dwww version 1.16 on Tue Dec 16 15:35:24 CET 2025.