How to use emacsclient on root files, using sudo and a single daemon

Question

I always run emacs as daemon but when I want to make something alike

sudo emacsclient /etc/make.conf

I can't do it because root is using another emacs and I don't really want to run 2 daemons or wait usual emacs load for simple file.

I need some solution alike emacsclientsudo /etc/make.conf :) to edit system files with user emacs client.

score 23 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 17 '12 at 12:40

23

add to your ~/.profile:

alias E="SUDO_EDITOR=\"emacsclient\" sudo -e"

then

E /etc/hosts

You should be able to use sudoedit instead of sudo -e, but I couldn't find the former on my Mac.

answered Apr 17 '12 at 12:40

event_jr

4

Neat. I think you can just set SUDO_EDITOR in your init scripts and directly call `sudo -e` or `sudoedit` on whatever file you want though. – Noufal Ibrahim Apr 17 '12 at 13:27

score 9 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 17 '12 at 11:36

9

I'm not sure about it directly but here's a trick

emacsclient -e '(find-file "/sudo::/etc/passwd")'

Uses tramp and the sudo method to open /etc/passwd as root.

You can alias this and use it directly from your shell.

answered Apr 17 '12 at 11:36

Noufal Ibrahim

The question is not clear, whether Emacs server runs as root or not. The other answer assumes that the server runs as root. Your answer assumes that the server runs unprivileged. – ceving Feb 21 '18 at 13:31
This doesn't work for me on Spacemacs ... sudo -e does, though. – HappyFace May 23 '19 at 08:54
How to wait for `Ctrl-x` `#`? – ceving Nov 28 '19 at 13:09

2 Answers2