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Save a file you edited in vim without the needed permissions

Terminal - Save a file you edited in vim without the needed permissions
:w !sudo tee %
2009-02-25 16:27:24
User: skinp
Functions: tee
317
Up
Down
Save a file you edited in vim without the needed permissions

I often forget to sudo before editing a file I don't have write permissions on. When you come to save that file and get the infamous "E212: Can't open file for writing", just issue that vim command in order to save the file without the need to save it to a temp file and then copy it back again.

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Alternatives

There are 4 alternatives - vote for the best!

Terminal - Alternatives
:w !sudo tee > /dev/null %
2010-03-24 20:04:26
User: idemal
Functions: tee
Tags: vim sudo tee
8
Up
Down
Save a file you edited in vim without the needed permissions (no echo)

Write a file you edited in Vim but that you do not have the permissions to write to (unless you use sudo.) Same as #1204 but without the echo to stdout that I find annoying.

Comments (1) | Add to favourites | Report as malicious
:w !pfexec tee %
2009-07-29 08:35:00
User: ilyxa
Functions: tee
Tags: vim sudo tee
3
Up
Down
Save a file you edited in vim without the needed permissions - (Open)solaris version with RBAC
Comments (1) | Add to favourites | Report as malicious
if test -w $1; then vim $1; else sudo vim $1; fi
2010-08-14 13:28:32
User: srepmub
Functions: sudo test vim
Tags: vim sudo tee
-1
Up
Down
Open file with sudo when there is no write-permission

this avoids several VIM warnings, which I seem too stupid to disable: warning, readonly! and: file and buffer have changed, reload?!

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vi2() {for i in $@; do [ -f "$i" ] && [ ! -w "$i" ] && sudo vim $@ && return; done; vim $@}
2010-08-15 10:00:14
User: pipeliner
Functions: sudo vim
Tags: vim sudo
-2
Up
Down
Open file with sudo when there is no write-permission

Like the http://www.commandlinefu.com/commands/view/6327/open-file-with-sudo-when-there-is-no-write-permission, but works (in zsh; my commandlinefu is not strong enough to understand why bash don't like it) with vim options, like -O, and many input files.

There could be other mistakes.

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Know a better way?

If you can do better, submit your command here.

What others think

this is just awesome! of course you have to have sudo rights...

Comment by nottings 79 weeks ago

awe-some !

Comment by pyrho 79 weeks ago

Unfortunately this does not work well in gvim.

Comment by tutwabee 78 weeks and 4 days ago

I wish I could vote this up more than once. Thanks!

Comment by Alanceil 78 weeks and 4 days ago

nice - thanks!

Comment by waltharius 76 weeks and 3 days ago

I use

:w !cat > %

which is similar, but shorter (you can add sudo in there if you want).

Comment by spatz 72 weeks and 3 days ago

awesome!

Comment by Iany 68 weeks and 6 days ago

I always quit vi and sudo vi when I find I haven't write permission before. This command save me much time.

Comment by kylexlau 68 weeks ago

!sudo cat > % won't work:

* the su-ed command is "cat" but

* > % isn't an argument for "cat", but a redirection

it's the same for sudo echo > myRootFile.txt

you could try with sudo sh -c "cat > %" but it's longer

so tee is ok.

comments welcome.

Comment by ioggstream 60 weeks and 1 day ago

greatest commend ever!!! tnx!

Comment by ilyxa 57 weeks and 1 day ago

how often did i miss this command, perfect!

+1 vote for greatest command ever

Comment by buergi 51 weeks and 6 days ago

i have added:

cmap w!! %!sudo tee > /dev/null %

to my .vimrc, so I can just use :w!! to write files with sudo

Comment by f3lix 43 weeks and 2 days ago

Pretty sweet. I'm an Emacs guy, but I'm impressed with the succinct way vi handles changing effective UID.

By the way, does this work for files that have spaces in the filenames? I would guess that it wouldn't. Is it fixable by double-quoting the %?

Comment by hackerb9 40 weeks ago

You made me curious about filenames with spaces so I had to try it out. It only works with the "%". But as a general rule, I try not to name Unix files with spaces.

Comment by skinp 39 weeks and 6 days ago

Really nice! I just freaked out when I tried this with nvi (in Ubuntu 9.10)... it did not ask for my password and yet it wrote an /etc file. Please shed some light!

Comment by ez77 36 weeks ago

Wow, this will come in handy. So will f3lix's :w!!

but I like to use abbreviations, i think they are cleaner than remapping:

ca w!! w !sudo tee "%"
Comment by jearsh 31 weeks ago

Thanks for this. It will save me a lot of frustration.

Comment by idemal 23 weeks ago

is this also possible for nano?

Comment by rubo77 13 weeks and 1 day ago

Cool.!

Comment by knityster 3 days ago

Your point of view

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