How To Save A File In Vim / Vi Without Root Permission With sudo

Syntax to save a file in Vim without root permission with sudo

In this example, you will edit a file called /etc/apache2/conf.d/mediawiki.conf as a normal user:
$ vi /etc/apache2/conf.d/mediawiki.conf
Make some changes and try to save by pressing :w, enter:

Fig.01: Vim Cannot Open File (Permission Problem)

To save a file, simply type the following command:
:w !sudo tee %

Fig.02: Save a file using sudo and tee

What the vim and shell command does:

• :w – Write a file (actually buffer).
• !sudo – Call shell with sudo command.
• tee – The output of write (vim :w) command redirected using tee.
• % – The % is nothing but current file name. In this example, it is /etc/apache2/conf.d/mediawiki.conf. In other words tee command is run as root and it takes standard input (or the buffer) and write it to a file represented by %. However, this will prompt to reload file again (hit L to load changes in vim itself):

Fig.03: Save and Load File In Vim Again Without Login As Root

Update ~/.vimrc file

Open/Edit ~/.vimrc file and append the following code:

"
" Sample command W
" 
command W :execute ':silent w !sudo tee % > /dev/null' | :edit!

Save and close the file. Open vim/vi and try to edit a privileged file with:
$ vi /etc/hosts
Now, write a privileged file with custom command just type W:

Fig.04 VIM write a privileged file custom W command

Fig.05: Sudo in action inside vim

A note about sudo config

Make sure you add yourself to sudo file. Here is my configuration (run ‘sudo visudo‘ OR ‘su -‘ and ‘visudo‘):

# User privilege specification
root    ALL=(ALL) ALL
%admin  ALL=(ALL) ALL

Make sure you add yourself to admin group:
# usermod -a -G admin vivek
# id vivek
Sample outputs:

uid=501(veryv) gid=20(staff) groups=20(staff),80(admin),81(_appserveradm),98(_lpadmin),33(_appstore),100(_lpoperator),204(_developer)

Try vim plugins to write/edit a privileged file or read only file

• User Unix commands including sudo, chmod, and more without leaving vim ever!
• This plugin enables vim to read files, using sudo or su or any other tool that can be used for changing the authentication of a user.

Conclusion

You just learned how to save a read-only file edited in vim text editor. As a sysadmin you might edit a file non-privileged user. In such case you can save file without login as root using the sudo command.