Re: Emacs client doesn't run by root

[Tassilo Horn <tsdh@gnu.org>]

Tim Johnson <tim@akwebsoft.com> writes:

> I have been using the emacs daemon as my system editor.
> Starting with the following script
> ;; code
> emacs -q -nw --no-splash --daemon -l ~/.emacs.d/init_term.el
> ;; end code
>
> Works fine as user tim, but if I try it as root, I get the following error
> message:
> ;; quote
> /usr/local/bin/emacsclient: can't find socket; have you started the server?

The reason is that this will try to connect to the emacs demon run for
the user root which you would need to start as well.

I just find files as normal user and use the below snippet to be queried
if I want to open a file I have no write permission for using TRAMP's
sudo method:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
  (defun th/find-file-sudo (file)
    "Opens FILE with root privileges."
    (interactive "F")
    (set-buffer (find-file (concat "/sudo::" file))))

  (define-advice find-file (:around (ff file &rest more) th/find-file-maybe-sudo)
    (if (and (file-exists-p file)
             (not (file-directory-p file))
             (not (file-writable-p file))
             (not (file-remote-p file))
             (y-or-n-p (concat "File "
                               file
                               " is read-only.  Sudo? ")))
        (th/find-file-sudo file)
      (funcall ff file more)))
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

Bye,
Tassilo