VSCode in WSL: how to sudo a root file so I can edit it

Question

WSL v.1 -- VSCode v1.40.1 (using 'Remote - WSL' extension 40.3)

How to open a root-owned file for edit using sudo and VSCode? (without running as root)

If I open a root file without sudo, I can't edit it (expected): $ code /etc/profile.d/custom-profile.sh $

But, if I try to sudo code the file, I get:

$ sudo code /etc/profile.d/custom-profile.sh
[sudo] password for xxxx:
sudo: code: command not found

Binarify's answer below shows that I can switch the default user to root, but I definitely don't want to be running as root, so I'm still looking for another solution.

Answer 1

Changing the user to root doesn't seem like a good solution. As Barafu Albino said, you need to set the SUDO_EDITOR environment variable.

• If you use VSCode for Windows

For me, the solution looks like this:

export VS_CODE="/mnt/c/Users/alex/AppData/Local/Programs/Microsoft\ VS\ Code/bin/code"
export SUDO_EDITOR="${VS_CODE} -nw"

You may use $ which code to find the VScode binary in Linux or where code in the Windows CMD. Make sure you don't forget to escaped the spaces in the resulting path.

• If you use the Linux version of VScode try this:

export SUDO_EDITOR="code -nw"

Finally, you can edit the files with sudo -e /path/to/file.