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Is there a way to open a local file for editing as a root? I need to make some changes to a config file located at ~/.emacs.d/init.el, but the Emacs tells me that the buffer is read-only.

MadPhysicist
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  • Note that you should not need root permissions to edit a file located under your home directory. Check what you're doing. – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil' Oct 05 '17 at 20:17
  • Not if the owner of that file is `root`. Then it does not matter in which directory the file is located. – MadPhysicist Oct 05 '17 at 20:23
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    That's my point: root should not own that file. You should fix that. – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil' Oct 05 '17 at 20:30
  • Also, when I follow the suggestions in that question, I get the following error: `File /sudo:root@machine-name.hq.domain.org:/var/root/.emacs.d/init.el no longer exists!` Somehow the domain name gets appended and inserted into the command automatically even though I run it as `File /sudo::/var/root/.emacs.d/init.el` – MadPhysicist Oct 05 '17 at 20:32
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    Does the file exist? Have you or your administrator configured Tramp? Can you reproduce the problem when you start Emacs with `emacs -Q` ? – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil' Oct 05 '17 at 20:43
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    @MadPhysicist: `/sudo::` is tramp shorthand for `/sudo:root@:` – phils Oct 05 '17 at 21:08
  • Is your `$HOME` set to `/var/root`? That seems kind of odd. Usually it's `/root` if you are logged in as root, or `/home/MadPhysicist` for a normal user called `MadPhysicist` (for example). – npostavs Oct 06 '17 at 01:13
  • I was able to figure this out after changing the ownership and permissions as @Gilles suggested. For some reason, Emacs created these files as owned by the `root`. On another note, if I ever wanted to connect to a remote machine and edit some files there, would I do it using the Tramp package? – MadPhysicist Oct 06 '17 at 01:15
  • @MadPhysicist: Yes, you would use Tramp to edit a file on a remote host. e.g. `/ssh::~/.emacs` to edit your `~/.emacs` file on the `` machine. See `C-h i g (tramp)` for full details. If you mean to edit files on a remote machine as the *root user* on that machine, then see https://stackoverflow.com/q/2177687 – phils Oct 06 '17 at 06:40

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