[sudo-users] Method(s) to disable sudo password prompt

[Richard Jackson]

Todd C. Miller writes:
> 
> In message <200801291743.m0THhrZc022469 at mason.gmu.edu>
> 	so spake Richard Jackson (rjackson):
> 
> > Is there a reason why sudo, both 1.6.8p12 and 1.6.9p12, invoked with the -S
> > (read the password from stdin) writes the prompt?
> 
> If there was no prompt then how would you determine whether a
> password was needed, other than by doing "sudo -k"?
> 
> I've been meaning to write a simple protocol to make it easier for
> people to write sudo frontends but haven't had a chance yet.
> 
>  - todd
> 

If the password is being read from standard input why is it necessary to
know if a password is needed and therefore write the prompt to standard
output?  Isn't the prompt in fact useless since the password was read
from standard input? 

Richard