Run script on mac prompt "Permission denied"

Question

I'm new to mac with not familiar on terminal command, i put the dvtcolorconvert.rb file on root directory of my volume, this ruby script can converting xcode 3 themes into xcode 4 themes format, which is xxxxxxxx.dvtcolortheme format.

Then run the script /dvtcolorconvert.rb ~/Themes/ObsidianCode.xccolortheme on terminal, but it's always prompt "Permission denied".

what's wrong with this? Anybody can help me solve this problem? Thanks.

score 339 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 05 '12 at 07:31

339

Did you give yourself the rights to execute the script?

The following command as super user will do this for you:

sudo chmod 755 'filename'

For details you should read the man page of chmod.

answered Sep 05 '12 at 07:31

schluchc

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This should be the accepted answer. Clear, concise and it just works. – dialex Jun 01 '16 at 10:15
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I used: sudo chmod 777 'filename' – Hemant Kaushik Dec 27 '17 at 06:06
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@HemantKaushik sure, they both work but do you know the difference? – hally9k Apr 04 '18 at 22:17
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@hally9k 777 allows everyone to modify your file. With 755, only you & the root user can modify the file, which keeps it more secure. – Steve Breese Feb 08 '19 at 23:48

score 82 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:18

Please read the whole answer before attempting to run with sudo

Try running sudo /dvtcolorconvert.rb ~/Themes/ObsidianCode.xccolortheme

The sudo command executes the commands which follow it with 'superuser' or 'root' privileges. This should allow you to execute almost anything from the command line. That said, DON'T DO THIS! If you are running a script on your computer and don't need it to access core components of your operating system (I'm guessing you're not since you are invoking the script on something inside your home directory (~/)), then it should be running from your home directory, ie:

~/dvtcolorconvert.rb ~/Themes/ObsidianCode.xccolortheme

Move it to ~/ or a sub directory and execute from there. You should never have permission issues there and there wont be a risk of it accessing or modifying anything critical to your OS.

If you are still having problems you can check the permissions on the file by running ls -l while in the same directory as the ruby script. You will get something like this:

$ ls -l  
total 13  
drwxr-xr-x    4 or019268 Administ    12288 Apr 10 18:14 TestWizard  
drwxr-xr-x    4 or019268 Administ     4096 Aug 27 12:41 Wizard.Controls  
drwxr-xr-x    5 or019268 Administ     8192 Sep  5 00:03 Wizard.UI  
-rw-r--r--    1 or019268 Administ     1375 Sep  5 00:03 readme.txt

You will notice that the readme.txt file says -rw-r--r-- on the left. This shows the permissions for that file. The 9 characters from the right can be split into groups of 3 characters of 'rwx' (read, write, execute). If I want to add execute rights to this file I would execute chmod 755 readme.txt and that permissions portion would become rwxr-xr-x. I can now execute this file if I want to by running ./readme.txt (./ tells the bash to look in the current directory for the intended command rather that search the $PATH variable).

schluchc alludes to looking at the man page for chmod, do this by running man chmod. This is the best way to get documentation on a given command, man <command>

Thanks! But where is the home directory(~/)? It's means desktop? — Andy_24, Sep 05 '12 at 07:49
The shell can tell you that with `echo ~`, typically `/Users/$USER`. The Desktop is just a directory below that. Unix GUIs hide the home directory from view, but it's still there. — Henk Langeveld, Sep 05 '12 at 07:56
You can get the path to your home directory by running `echo $HOME`. It will likely look something like /Users/ or possibly /Users/ — sean_m, Sep 05 '12 at 07:57
@sean_m Thanks for your detailed explain, i've already know that. — Andy_24, Sep 05 '12 at 08:33
Thanks for the extra detail. This helps users visualized the problem and offers great insight to what the underlying problem is. — Adriano Michael, May 16 '20 at 10:13

score 6 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 02 '15 at 20:37

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In my case, I had made a stupid typo in the shebang.

So in case someone else on with fat fingers stumbles across this question:

Whoops: #!/usr/local/bin ruby

I meant to write: #!/usr/bin/env ruby

The vague error ZSH gives sent me down the wrong path:

ZSH: zsh: permission denied: ./foo.rb

Bash: bash: ./foo.rb: /usr/local/bin: bad interpreter: Permission denied

answered Feb 02 '15 at 20:37

jbbuckley

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The difference is absolute vs relative paths. ```#!/usr/local/bin/ruby``` would work as an absolute path on your local file system, which is less portable. Alternatively, ```#!/usr/bin/env ruby``` uses the Unix program ```env``` to locate ruby from your path environment variable, which is more portable. – davejlin Feb 28 '21 at 16:24

score 4 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 05 '12 at 07:30

4

You should run the script as 'superuser', just add 'sudo' in front of the command and type your password when prompted.

So try:

sudo /dvtcolorconvert.rb ~/Themes/ObsidianCode.xccolortheme

If this doesn't work, try adapting the permissions:

sudo chmod 755 /dvtcolorconvert.rb
sudo chmod 755 ~/Themes/ObsidianCode.xccolortheme

answered Sep 05 '12 at 07:30

Jens

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Oooh, not _necessarily_ something I'd suggest unless you're _darn_ sure the script can't hurt anything. – paxdiablo Sep 05 '12 at 07:31
Very bad default response. – AdamC Mar 14 '23 at 14:59

score 3 · Answer 5 · answered Apr 02 '19 at 14:03

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To run in the administrator mode in mac

sudo su

answered Apr 02 '19 at 14:03

Vaishnavi Bala

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Running with sudo permissions could be dangerous. It is better to try elevating all other permissions before doing this. – TheKarateKid Oct 04 '22 at 19:11

score 3 · Answer 6 · edited Jan 31 '21 at 16:50

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use source before file name,,

like my file which i want to run from terminal is ./jay/bin/activate

so i used command "source ./jay/bin/activate"

edited Jan 31 '21 at 16:50

think-maths

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answered Jan 31 '21 at 05:49

Jay Parekh

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score 2 · Answer 7 · answered Apr 07 '23 at 09:33

2

try with this once

chmod +x filename.sh

answered Apr 07 '23 at 09:33

Kiran Kawade

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score 1 · Answer 8 · answered Sep 05 '12 at 07:30

Check the permissions on your Ruby script (may not have execute permission), your theme file and directory (in case it can't read the theme or tries to create other themes in there), and the directory you're in when you run the script (in case it makes temporary files in the current directory rather then /tmp).

Any one of them could be causing you grief.

Run script on mac prompt "Permission denied"

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