Women in Technology

Article:		Apache Web-Serving with Mac OS X: Part 2
Subject:		httpd.conf owned by root
Date:		2002-01-28 23:08:06
From:		tanderson4
Using BBEdit Lite 6.1, I'm told that the file can't be unlocked because it is owned by root. When I check the permissions on the file, I see that the wheel group has read only access. Is there something obvious I'm missing here to be able to edit the httpd.conf file without having to log-in as the root user? I am logged in as an admin user. Thanks for a great series of articles!

Showing messages 1 through 3 of 3.

• httpd.conf owned by root
  2002-01-29 10:31:49  Morbus Iff | [View]
  
  
  Hey there. You may want to look into BBEdit 6.5 - when you try saving a file that is not owned by yourself, BBEdit 6.5 will bring up a dialog asking for a valid password. It's transparent authentication.
  
  Ignoring the above, no, you don't have to login as root to mess with the config file. What you want is something called 'sudo', which allows you to run commands as a different user.
  
  You can find out more about 'sudo' in the Terminal: Part 1 article, also at O'Reilly. Check it out here: http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/mac/2001/12/14/terminal_one.html
• httpd.conf owned by root
  2002-01-29 16:09:22  tanderson4 [View]
  
  
  Thanks. I know about running sudo from the terminal window, and I guess that would allow me to edit the file using a terminal editor like emacs or vi. Using sudo doesn't extend privileges outside of the terminal session, does it? (I have lots to learn about the Unix side of OS X!) I actually have BBEdit 6.5 on order. I'll download the demo version until the real version arrives and give it another try. Thanks for the feedback.
• BBEdit 6.5 much nicer
  2002-01-29 23:03:12  tanderson4 [View]
  
  
  You're right. Things work much more smoothly with BBEdit 6.5. No problems with permissions now. Thanks!