Answer by WinEunuuchs2Unix for How to elevate privileges to root in bash and return back?

I don't have many scripts that elevate from user privileges to sudo (super user) powers. Ironically due to the fact your question is about gedit one of the scripts I have is called sgedit. It was created because gksu gedit is no longer supported and because root user can't set tab settings, font preferences, etc.

#!/bin/bash

# NAME: sgedit
# PATH: /mnt/e/bin
# DESC: Run gedit as sudo using $USER preferences
# DATE: June 17, 2018.

# Must not prefix with sudo when calling script
if [[ $(id -u) == 0 ]]; then
    zenity --error --text "You cannot call this script using sudo. Aborting."
    exit 99
fi

# Get user preferences before elevating to sudo
gsettings list-recursively | grep -i gedit | grep -v history | \
    grep -v docinfo | \
    grep -v virtual-root | grep -v state.window > /tmp/gedit.gsettings

sudoFunc () {

    # Must be running as sudo
    if [[ $(id -u) != 0 ]]; then
        zenity --error --text "Sudo password authentication failed. Aborting."
        exit 99
    fi

    # Get sudo's gedit preferences
    gsettings list-recursively | grep -i gedit | grep -v history | \
        grep -v docinfo | \
        grep -v virtual-root | grep -v state.window > /tmp/gedit.gsettings.root
    diff /tmp/gedit.gsettings.root /tmp/gedit.gsettings | grep '>' > /tmp/gedit.gsettings.diff
    sed -i 's/>/gsettings set/g; s/uint32 //g' /tmp/gedit.gsettings.diff
    chmod +x /tmp/gedit.gsettings.diff
    bash -x /tmp/gedit.gsettings.diff  # Display override setting to terminal
#    nohup gedit $@ &>/dev/null &
    nohup gedit -g 1300x840+1+1220 $@ &>/dev/null &
#              Set the X geometry window size (WIDTHxHEIGHT+X+Y).

}

FUNC=$(declare -f sudoFunc)
sudo -H bash -c "$FUNC; sudoFunc $*;"

exit 0

The script must be called in regular user mode. It copies gsettings for gedit from user profile to /tmp. Important settings like font size, line wrap, tab settings, convert tabs to spaces and plug-ins are copied.

Then sudo password is requested and status is elevated to root.

sudo -H is used for equivalent to gksu protection to prevent root powers from hammering user configuration files.

Next root configuration settings for gedit are inherited from calling user's profile that was copied into /tmp.

gedit is loaded as a background task and user is presented with sudo version of file opened. For example /etc/default/grub.

The sudo powers are immediately dropped and the command line prompt returns. However gedit is still running in a separate window with file opened for editing.