Hello

This is a strange one. I want to make a file as difficult to change as possible, even for myself. Why? Because I keep changing it even though I know I shouldn't and the result is always bad.

The appropriate place to apply this bugfix is between the keyboard and the chair but that code is so broken generating a patch file would be a nightmare.

What can I do beyond and mounting it on a separate read-only partition that will make it as hard for me change it as possible? It doesn't matter if it's possible to change it with huge effort, but it would be nice if it could be made to take at least 30 minutes effort to undo all the restrictions. All suggestions welcome

You could write a daemon that monitors that file and triggers a cattle prod if any attempt to change it is made; hook the cattle prod to the chair seat and there you go...

Other than that, nope, not much else you can do -- just remember that if you head hurts, stop banging it against the wall, eh?

Not knowing what the file is, copy it to a CDFS, delete the original on the hard drive, and mount the read-only CDFS. Of course this dosen't prevent the PEBKAC from abusing the CDFS.

chattr +i /the/file

should work - providing you don't

chattr +a /the/file

But you wouldn't do something like that would you ?????

Why don't you just turn on version control for this file? May be you can use git or similar tool. This way, you will always get back your original file.

And, here is a weird way to make it read-only. Write a kernel module which will create a /proc entry. Make the read function return the contents of the file and do not provide write support. Compile and insert module. Edit your init scripts to bind the /proc folder to the folder where your file is currently present or create appropriate sym links.

Genius Compile it statically into the kernel! That should do it so long as I clean up after the build. Very cool solution.