Let me answer my own question. Perhaps kludgy, but by adding 'tee' to sudo, this technique works:
root@lab141:~ # visudo root@lab141:~ # tail -1 /etc/sudoers %zoom ALL=NOPASSWD:/usr/bin/tee root@lab141:~ # su - mike mike@lab141:~ # free -m total used free shared buffers cached Mem: 491 473 18 0 111 170 -/+ buffers/cache: 190 300 Swap: 512 0 511 mike@lab141:~ # echo 3 | sudo /usr/bin/tee /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches > /dev/null mike@lab141:~ # free -m total used free shared buffers cached Mem: 491 103 388 0 1 12 -/+ buffers/cache: 89 401 Swap: 512 0 511 > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@vm.marist.edu with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For more information on Linux on System z, visit http://wiki.linuxvm.org/