[vox-tech] Permission Denied Error

Jeff Newmiller jdnewmil at dcn.davis.ca.us
Thu Jul 8 22:19:00 PDT 2010 

Unless you have the full source code and are familiar enough with it to insure that it doesn't have hidden dependencies on those constants, and are recompiling the full source code, you should still be wary of changing read-only headers.

In such a case, "chmod" would be your friend.

"Anahita Yazdi" <atyazdi at ucdavis.edu> wrote:

>Thank you very much. I am so very sorry if my issue is being a little
>confusing. In fact I need to change the header files of a program that I
>installed on this system. They arent files that could potentially harm my
>system at all. Its a visualizer software. All I need is to change a few
>numbers on the header file for scaling purposes. It wont really cause any
>problem on the system that is why its not a bad idea at all. I just dont get
>why the file appears to be "read-only" to me. Before, I used to make changes
>on this header file without any problem. So this is something completely
>new. All I need is to know why I lost the permission and how can I again fix
>the problem. Because I realized its not only for this header file that my
>permission fails but also its any other file I open I dont have permission
>to make changes on it!
>
>On Thu, Jul 8, 2010 at 9:13 PM, Matthew Holland <mdholland at ucdavis.edu>wrote:
>
>> You need to learn about UNIX permissions.  There is no reason you
>> shouldn't be able to change the permissions on the file with sudo
>> commands.  As Jeff suggested, there are plenty of reasons why this may
>> not be a good thing to do, but it could be fine.  No one can really
>> tell from what you have told us whether it's in the Very Bad Idea
>> category, or not.  If this header belongs to the system (e.g., it's in
>> /usr/include or /Library, or pretty much anywhere but /Users), then
>> modifying it is probably not a good idea.
>>
>> You should read the man pages for "chown" and "chmod" and read about
>> UNIX permissions in general.  If the user that you are logged in as is
>> an administrator, you should be able to change the ownership of the
>> file with a command like:
>>
>> $ sudo chown file username
>>
>> where "file" is the name of the file, and "username" is the name of
>> the user to whom you want to transfer ownership of the file.  It's
>> possible that the file is still read-only at this point, depending on
>> the file permissions.  If so, and you really want to do this, you can
>> issue a command like
>>
>> $ chmod u+w file
>>
>> Keep in mind that a little knowledge can be dangerous, and think
>> clearly about what you're doing before you change the ownership or
>> permissions of any file owned by root.  Usually there is a good reason
>> for root ownership.  This is probably why you haven't received a lot
>> of help, because no one wants to help you break system-owned files.
>>
>> Matt
>>
>> On Thu, Jul 8, 2010 at 8:54 PM, Anahita Yazdi <atyazdi at ucdavis.edu> wrote:
>> > I need to make changes on a header file but the file is read only for me.
>> I
>> > need to enable the root user account. How would I be able to do that?
>> >
>> > On Thu, Jul 8, 2010 at 8:09 PM, Jeff Newmiller <jdnewmil at dcn.davis.ca.us
>> >
>> > wrote:
>> >>
>> >> In order to obtain more detailed help you must provide a more detailed
>> >> question.
>> >>
>> >> "Anahita Yazdi" <atyazdi at ucdavis.edu> wrote:
>> >>
>> >> >I am confused then so what should I do to overcome the problem. I will
>> >> >really be appreciated for more detailed help please
>> >> >Thanks a lot
>> >> >Anahita
>> >> >
>> >> >On Thu, Jul 8, 2010 at 5:26 PM, Jeff Newmiller
>> >> > <jdnewmil at dcn.davis.ca.us>wrote:
>> >> >
>> >> >> Sounds to me like the file is read-only and I would strongly
>> encourage
>> >> >> you
>> >> >> to desist in your attempts to modify it. You are very unlikely to
>> >> >> obtain the
>> >> >> results you desire by making such a change.
>> >> >>
>> >> >> "Anahita Yazdi" <atyazdi at ucdavis.edu> wrote:
>> >> >>
>> >> >> >Hi,
>> >> >> >I am working on a Mac OS X 10.6.2, I installed a software program
>> >> >> > through
>> >> >> >terminal and wanted to change some details on one of its header
>> files
>> >> >> >(extension *.h) however I am getting a permission denied error in
>> >> >> > terminal
>> >> >> >when I open it as a "vi" file. I tried "sudo" but it is still not
>> >> >> > working.
>> >> >> >It is a file that is apparently owned by the root. I tried to
>> >> >> disable/enable
>> >> >> >the root on this system from apple's official discussion page but
>> the
>> >> >> option
>> >> >> >"edit" in "Open Directory Utility" is missing. Where else would I be
>> >> >> > able
>> >> >> to
>> >> >> >perform such task on my system?
>> >> >> >Thanks a bunch,
>> >> >> >Anahita
>> >> >> >_______________________________________________
>> >> >> >vox-tech mailing list
>> >> >> >vox-tech at lists.lugod.org
>> >> >> >http://lists.lugod.org/mailman/listinfo/vox-tech
>> >> >>
>> >> >>
>> >> >>
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>> >> >_______________________________________________
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>> >>  rocks...1k
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Jeff Newmiller                        The     .....       .....  Go Live...
DCN:<jdnewmil at dcn.davis.ca.us>        Basics: ##.#.       ##.#.  Live Go...
                                      Live:   OO#.. Dead: OO#..  Playing
Research Engineer (Solar/Batteries            O.O#.       #.O#.  with
/Software/Embedded Controllers)               .OO#.       .OO#.  rocks...1k
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Sent from my phone. Please excuse my brevity.

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