How do I edit /etc/sudoers from a script?

Question

I need to edit /etc/sudoers from a script to add/remove stuff from white lists.

Assuming I have a command that would work on a normal file, how could I

Answer 1

Just to add a further option to the answers above, if the race condition is not a major concern, then the following command can be used to avoid manually copying a modified file to /etc/sudoers

sudo EDITOR="cp /tmp/sudoers.new" visudo

This will ensure that the new file is validated and installed correctly with permissions update.

Note that if there is an error in the /tmp/sudoers.new file then visudo will prompt for user input so it is advisable to check it with visudo -c -f /tmp/sudoers.new first.