How to write to files that require super user rights?

[kirusfg]

When editing a file that does not belong to me, I do sudo helix file so that I have rights to write to it, but the config loaded in helix is no longer mine. Is there a way to "sudo-write" from a user instance of helix?

[the-mikedavis]

sudoedit(8) is a good tool for this: instead of running sudo helix which runs helix with root permissions, it creates a temp file, runs helix as you, and then moves the temp file to the location of the real file when done editing.

[David-Else]

Maybe a better solution would be to make Helix aware if it was called as SUDO_EDITOR and simply display in the status line 'You don't have permission to modify this file' if that were the case?

[sudormrfbin]

Upon loading a new document we could check whether the current user has write permissions to the file and disable editing. Vim for example shows Warning: Editing a readonly file when attempting to change it (but still allows editing the text in the buffer).

[the-mikedavis]

A read-only indicator in the statusline would be a nice touch I think (#2627). Currently we only show an error when attempting to write to a read-only file.

[kirusfg]

I would personally prefer something like :sudo-write since that is what I use in vim and kakoune. But in those editors, these are plugins, not the editors' core functionality.

[yonatan8070]

I know that VS Code has a similar feature, if you try to save a file without write permissions, it will offer to save as root (using pkexec), save to a different location, or discard. I think this could be a really useful feature.

[David-Else]

To make helix your default sudo editor edit your .bash_profile and add:

export SUDO_EDITOR="path/to/hx"

Then use sudoedit.

[pathwave]

When you run helix as sudo helix look for config in root/.config/helix/.. path. You can supply your own config path by doing hx --config /my/path/config.toml or symlink config to root profile folder.

Another option is to do what installers do and make a bash script in for example /usr/bin/ named hx, with content like this:
#!/bin/sh
HELIX_RUNTIME=/path/to/helix/runtime exec /path/to/real/helix/hx --config /path/to/helix/config.toml "$@"

[fraunos]

micro editor asks for root password when the user is not permitted to write the file. This is really convenient.

[webdev23]

It also watch and warn if the file has changed, it's critical in this context.

[zhexyez]

micro editor asks for root password when the user is not permitted to write the file. This is really convenient.

Similar behavior would be appreciated, as SUDO_EDITOR does not warn that you want to write into the file that needs root permissions.

[uros-5]

If changing EDITOR and SUDO_EDITOR don't work, run this command:

sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/editor editor /home/username/.cargo/bin/hx 50

then select helix:

sudo update-alternatives --config editor

[uros-5]

Run which hx to see where is helix binary. And just replace output from that command into first one.

…

On Sat, Aug 5, 2023, 12:57 PM Hezhexi2002 ***@***.***> wrote: Sorry to bother you here,but I meet an error when I try to execute the command: sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/editor editor /home/username/.cargo/bin/hx 50 it throw an error like below: [image: image] <https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/53631206/258580017-a4667bf2-0e2c-42f7-bfc7-b0bcc5b7bd8c.png> and I also check the directory which used in the command and found that there does not have hx ,so I wonder if it exits only when you build the helix from source,hope you can give me more details — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#4251 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AOFFNVG5DYHBQCIZWU4WSK3XTYRJZANCNFSM6AAAAAAREJUWEU> . You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[Hezhexi2002]

Sure, appreciate your prompt response. I've actually discovered that the helix binary is located at /usr/bin/hx, confirmed by using the which hx command. However, even after running the command with the updated path, the configuration didn't load when I tried opening it with sudo hx, as I explained in this post: link.

[webdev23]

Good care has to be taken on all this little details, as it breaks the user experience real bad.

Our keybindings goes away and we get stuck on the pink fantasy theme. It's unusable, we close it.

[HernandoR]

in vim, we could use :w !sudo tee % when we find out the requirement for sudo permission after editing. Is there a similar tool in hx?

[yonatan8070]

I think you can use %:pipe-to sudo tee %, haven't tested it but it should work

[jobukkit]

I think you can use %:pipe-to sudo tee %, haven't tested it but it should work

Didn't work for me, there was no error but the changes weren't written. Don't know if I did something wrong.