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When you have to edit system files, it's an usual situation that you launched Emacs with a normal user before, so the file will be write-protected. What can I do to gain root privileges? I mean something like M-x sudo from dired.

I don't want to launch Emacs as super-user and I don't want to quit it.

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5 Answers 5

Reset to default
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Use C-x C-f and type out /su::/etc/hostname or /sudo::/etc/hostname as applicable.

This uses the TRAMP package, which is distributed with Emacs. This package provides access to remote files, and more generally to files that Emacs can't open directly.

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    Thanks. What is the meaning of the :: ?
    – smonff
    Commented Sep 23, 2014 at 22:29
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    The : is a separator; we supply it the second time to indicate that there are no more arguments. You can /su:otheruser@localhost:, for instance.
    – artagnon
    Commented Sep 23, 2014 at 22:51
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    /sudo:: is tramp shorthand for sudo:root@<hostname>:
    – phils
    Commented Oct 6, 2017 at 6:48
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Use find-file with tramp. At the prompt /sudo::/etc/ssh/ssh_config will use sudo and a subshell to open that file with root privileges. When sudo is first used it will prompt for a password, but until that session closes you can edit any file with those permissions by prefixing with the existing /sudo:: command.

See http://www.gnu.org/software/tramp/ for more details.

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There are today many packages that solve this problem (as of 2018). Some of them are:

  • sudo-edit, allows to switch editing rights on an already opened read-only file. Just M-x sudo and type a password and you're done. After many years of use of this one, I think it is the more convenient for this need. sudo-edit allows you to open a file as any user, but it default on sudo if none provided.
  • dired-toggle-sudo. It was the first packaged solution I found after asking this question. It is Dired oriented, so if you prefer the file oriented version, see the first bullet of this list.
  • Other solutions exists on Melpa
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    M-x sudo works out of the box in doom emacs.
    – Michael Francis
    Commented Apr 2, 2021 at 23:22
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    @michael-dorst I didn't know despite I am using it ^^
    – smonff
    Commented Apr 4, 2021 at 6:36
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    For Spacemacs users, SPC f E is the shortcut
    – Benjamin R
    Commented May 2, 2021 at 13:03
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    In Doom Emacs, use M-x doom/sudo-this-file or SPC f U (M-x sudo didn't exist for me)
    – user37362
    Commented Apr 2, 2022 at 14:37
  • @walnut_salami Doom Emacs doesn't require an extra-package indeed. M-x sudo requires sudo-edit.
    – smonff
    Commented Apr 4, 2022 at 9:48
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If you use Helm. You don't need any external package / additional config. it works out of the box.

Inside helm-find-files you can invoke find file as root which bound to C-c r. This works for files or directories in helm-find-files session.

If you don't want to type password every time you open root files/dirs. Put the following line to your ~/.authinfo.gpg

machine localhost port sudo login root password xxxxxx
machine your_machine_name port sudo login root password xxxxx

source

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6

If you use the ivy package, and have configured counsel-find-file to replace find-file, then one of the "ivy actions" pre-configured for you already is to edit the file as root. The default hydra keystroke for that action is r.

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