Raspberry Pi Forums

What is the difference between the gksudo and sudo command?

sudo elevates privileges in an ordinary shell. gksudo elevates privileges in an Xwindows shell.

You shouldn't need to use either for normal programs. Even wiggling GPIO pins doesn't need root auth with GPIOzero.
https://gpiozero.readthedocs.io/en/v1.3.1/
https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/gpio-z ... computing/

Use to read the manual. And . Often you can find information abou packages like this. See

thanks
that explains it to use it for a x window command

Canedje wrote:What is the difference between the gksudo and sudo command?

gksudo : is used to run graphical (GUI) applications as root
sudo : is used to run command line applications as root

Often using sudo with graphical applications will work, but there have been issues in the past, so best practice is to use sudo for commands that run in the terminal or from the CLI, and gksudo (or gksu) to run desktop/GUI applications.

HawaiianPi wrote: Often using sudo with graphical applications will work, but there have been issues in the past, so best practice is to use sudo for commands that run in the terminal or from the CLI, and gksudo (or gksu) to run desktop/GUI applications.

It's best practice to ONLY use sudo or gksudo when you absolutely must have elevated privileges. Too many users on too many systems assume sudo is the answer to all of their troubles. It usually isn't and is simply an ugly way to bypass security that's there to prevent you shooting the system dead in error.