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Edit file as another user in Emacs
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:date: 2016-11-10T08:57:12Z
:category: blog
:tags: development,emacs
:url: 2016/11/10/edit-file-as-other-user-in-emacs/
:save_as: 2016/11/10/edit-file-as-other-user-in-emacs/index.html
:status: published
:author: Gergely Polonkai
I have recently found `this article <http://emacsredux.com/blog/2013/04/21/edit-files-as-root/>`_
by Bozhidar Batsov on opening the current file as root. I barely use `tramp
<https://www.gnu.org/software/tramp/>`_ for sudo access, but when I do, I almost never use root as
the target user. So I decided to fix it for my needs.
.. code-block:: lisp
(defun open-this-file-as-other-user (user)
"Edit current file as USER, using `tramp' and `sudo'. If the current
buffer is not visiting a file, prompt for a file name."
(interactive "sEdit as user (default: root): ")
(when (string= "" user)
(setq user "root"))
(let* ((filename (or buffer-file-name
(read-file-name (format "Find file (as %s): "
user))))
(tramp-path (concat (format "/sudo:%s@localhost:" user) filename)))
(if buffer-file-name
(find-alternate-file tramp-path)
(find-file tramp-path))))
If the user is not specified, the default is still root. Also, if the current buffer is not
visiting a file, I prompt for a filename. As Im not an ``ido`` user, I didnt bother calling
``ido-read-file-name``; `helm <https://github.com/emacs-helm/helm/wiki>`_ overrides
``read-file-name`` for me anyway.
Unlike Bozhidar, I barely use this feature, so I didnt bind this to a key.