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Asked: 2026-06-06T22:11:46+00:00

I’m trying to edit the httpd.conf file located in /private/etc/apache2, and I can’t figure

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I’m trying to edit the httpd.conf file located in /private/etc/apache2, and I can’t figure out how to get permission to write

I’ve done

$ cd /private/etc/apache2
$ sudo chown bdh httpd.conf
$ ls -lash
 0 drwxr-xr-x  13 root      wheel   442B Jun  7 00:11 .
 0 drwxr-xr-x  93 root      wheel   3.1K Jun 26 10:51 ..
 0 drwxr-xr-x  13 root      wheel   442B Jan  3 16:26 extra
24 -r--r--r--   1 bdh       wheel    24K Jun  7 00:11 httpd.conf
 ...etc...
$ vim httpd.conf

and it says "httpd.conf" [readonly] 677L, 24330C

tried cping to the desktop, but I cant get permission to edit it there either

I’m pretty new to using the terminal, is there some other command I can use?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    It is normally unnecessary and undesirable to alter access permissions to edit a file. To edit a file that requires administrator (or other user) privileges without altering the access permissions, use:

    sudo -e /private/etc/apache2

    Sudo’s -e option tells it you want to edit the given file.

    This command copies the file and makes it writable by you, tells the editor specified with the SUDO_EDITOR, VISUAL or EDITOR environment variables (they’re checked in that order) to edit the file, and when the editor exits, the file is copied back to the original without altering its access permissions.

    See the sudo man page for details: x-man-page://8/sudo

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