On emacs, you can C-x C-f /sudo://etc/hosts and it'll do what you think that means, including prompting for your password only once in $TIMEOUT. It's the same b

On emacs, you can C-x C-f /sudo://etc/hosts and it'll do what you think that means, including prompting for your password only once in $TIMEOUT. It's the same base mechanism that lets you C-x C-f /user@host:path for remote editing through ssh.