SUDOERS_SETUP.md

Sudoers Setup for Passwordless Route Commands

Step 1 — Open the sudoers editor

sudo visudo

It will ask for your Mac password, then open the file in the Terminal editor.

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Step 2 — Navigate to the bottom of the file

Press the End key or use the arrow keys to scroll to the very last line.

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Step 3 — Add this line

Type it exactly as shown:

%admin ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /sbin/route

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Step 4 — Save and exit

This is the part that trips people up since it's not a normal text editor.

Press Ctrl + X → then press Y to confirm save → then press Enter to keep the filename.

visudo will validate the syntax before saving, so if you made a typo it will warn you rather than corrupting the file.

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Verify it worked

sudo route -n add 1.2.3.4 192.168.1.1

If it runs without asking for a password, you're good. Clean it up after:

sudo route -n delete 1.2.3.4

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If your editor is vim instead of nano

If you see ~ characters on empty lines, your Terminal opened visudo in vim. The commands are different:

Action	Command
Go to end of file	Shift + G
Open a new line	o
Type the rule	(type normally)
Exit insert mode	Esc
Save and quit	:wq then Enter

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Vim command reference

Vim has a "command mode" — press : first to enter it, then type the command.

Command	Meaning	What it does
:wq	write + quit	Save and exit
:q	quit	Quit (only works if no unsaved changes)
:q!	quit force	Exit without saving, discards all changes
:w	write	Save only, stay in the editor

The ! in vim generally means "force it / I'm sure" — use it when vim refuses to quit due to unsaved changes.