Can't Modify .bashrc as root

Ukuntu · 04-07-2009, 09:27 AM

On one of my client's servers I attempted to modify ~/.bashrc as root to add in some aliases and update $PATH

Well on this particular system, for some reason all the /root SSH profile files are read only and I cannot modify. When I open them in VI it says read only and :w! fails.

I checked and the user:group is root:root and the permissions are 0644. I attempted to chmod it to 777 and I got permission denied.

Anyone have any clue?

Robhogg · 04-07-2009, 09:54 AM

What are the results of:

Code:

lsattr .bashrc

?

If the output contains an i like in "----i-------------- .bashrc" then the "immutable" bit is set, which prevents any changes being made. If so, execute:

Code:

chattr -i .bashrc

You will need to be root, or use sudo, to do this.

Edited to add: you could also try getfacl .bashrc to check whether an access control list has been set.

Ukuntu · 04-07-2009, 09:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Robhogg

What are the results of:

Code:

lsattr .bashrc

?

If the output contains an i like in "----i-------------- .bashrc" then the "immutable" bit is set, which prevents any changes being made. If so, execute:

Code:

chattr -i .bashrc

You will need to be root, or use sudo, to do this.

That worked. Thank you very much.