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This problem is driving me crazy. Emacs open all buffers including new ones in read only mode (yes, I know that I can do C-x C-q). I've tried everything including:

  • Delete .emacs.d/
  • Delete .config/emacs/init.el
  • Delete .emacs.el
  • Launch Emacs as: emacs -q -Q --debug-init (no errors, same behavior)
  • Reinstall Emacs.

I am using gentoo. I've create a new user (guest). Emacs works as expected. I guess the problem is somehow related to my user.

I can open a file in nano, edit it and save it. No problem. Afterwards, I open the same file in emacs it opens in read only mode. I have to hit Ctrl-Q to edit it. I can save it without problems. It's an emacs problem

All the files have write permission, that's why I can open and edit them in nano for instance.

Any help would be much appreciated.

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4
  • Can you edit files in another editor? This may not be an emacs problem.
    – Fran Burstall
    Commented Oct 3, 2020 at 18:04
  • Do you see the same behavior if you start Emacs with emacs -Q (no init file)? If not, bisect your init file to find the culprit.
    – Drew
    Commented Oct 3, 2020 at 18:54
  • 1
    Have you checked that you have write permission for the files you are opening?
    – mikado
    Commented Oct 6, 2020 at 6:02
  • I have the opposite problem. I want emacs to open files read-only by default and for me to have to explicitly set it to writeable. Reason being, sometimes I'll be working with say very similar looking configuration files where I want to copy from one to the other but if I'm not careful I end up editing the wrong one by mistake.
    – tomsgd
    Commented Aug 10, 2023 at 7:50

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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Check for a .dir-locals.el file.

I had the same symptoms, and in my case there was a .dir-locals.el (at the top of my git repos, next to .git), containing this line:

((nil . ((buffer-read-only . t))))
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