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A shell script to edit text files as root in the GUI
Authored by: jeremyp on Sep 01, '04 10:21:49AM
Or you could just do

sudo vi a-protected-file

Personally, I don't like it to be too convenient to edit system files. They're protected for good reason.

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philosophy of hidden files
Authored by: alani on Sep 01, '04 01:23:58PM

Well, many hidden files are kind of important and can break things, but other things are kept invisible so non-technical users don't get overwhelmed by the multitude of configuration files and directories in their home directories.

Other files need to be invisible to remote, read-only uers (things like .htaccess), and the system is not very sensitive to them (as opposed to things related to the file system, for example).

Often, I find that the administrative work I do involves several files needing coordinated edits (e.g., if I want to do something with my mail system, I have two Postfix config files, global and local Procmail configs, and many SpamAssassin config files).

That's when I'm really happy that I can use Pseudo to run BBEditLite as Root, then BBEditLite's "Open hidden" command to open the files I need.

But your point is well taken in consideration of the system files.



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