Comments on: OS X: Edit a file using TextEdit as root or superuser

By: Heuristo

Heuristo — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 16:18:53 +0000

Thanks very much for this information. Especially Greg for the elaboration on using emacs which was fun since I used it every day back in the early 1980’s and loved it. Cobwebs heavy over there but I love how snappy emacs is.

By: ethomas

ethomas — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 15:11:22 +0000

I plugged in (sudo open -t /etc/hosts) into the terminal put in my password and it says there is an error in the textedit and then i go manually look at text edit and it says the “hosts” file is locked so i can’t do anything…what should i do, or can i do anything.

By: Nareille

Nareille — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 12:43:09 +0000

I think this command broke my xampp! Everytime ever since when i change something in my vhosts file and restart apache, it says there is another server running on port 80!
The only way to “fix” it is to reboot.

I wanna undo this step, but whenever I open the file, it is opened with sudo permissions. Even the icon changed. How can I undo it?!

By: James

James — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 17:59:31 +0000

Works for me (i user snow leopard)
just need to login before then edit the host file :)

By: Steve

Steve — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 09:14:50 +0000

This seems to be broken in Lion. Works for me in Snow Leopard

>sudo /Applications/TextEdit.app/Contents/MacOS/TextEdit /etc/hosts

By: x

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 23:26:21 +0000

that short hand command “sudo open -t /etc/hosts” worked for me! THANKS :D

By: Paloma Jiménez

Paloma Jiménez — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 10:54:00 +0000

thanks!!!!!

By: Anon

Anon — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 08:13:00 +0000

from the terminal:

sudo nano /etc/hosts
enter your PW and bam, you are now able to edit the file. to save changes hit “control+o” to write the output to the file, when asked for the file name just hit enter. “control+x” to close nano.

By: Greg

Greg — Wed, 04 May 2011 05:11:00 +0000

Or you could learn a bit of emacs.

sudo emacs /etc/hosts
Then ^ N a few time down to the line you want to edit.
^ F to move forward and ^ B to move back.
^ = Control
^ P = previous line
The to save the file ^ X followed by ^ S.
To exit ^ X ^ C.
It seem weird at first but it’s well worth the effort.
You will find that many Cocoa apps use emacs keys but don’t advertise them.

By: Hoax

Hoax — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 09:17:00 +0000

does not let me save the changes due to restricted access…