LaTeX forum ⇒ TeX Live and MacTeX ⇒ Why compiling LaTex examples require 'sudo'? Topic is solved

[erwann]

Why are TexLive's doc files owned by root? Would it be a good idea to \chown them to a non root user?

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texmf-dist my-mac$ ls -ld doc/
drwxr-xr-x  49 root  staff  1666 Aug 24 19:31 doc/
 
$echo $PWD
/usr/local/texlive/2016/texmf-dist/doc/latex/lettre
 
$ pdflatex letex1.tex
This is pdfTeX, Version 3.14159265-2.6-1.40.17 (TeX Live 2016) (preloaded format=pdflatex)
  restricted \write18 enabled.
entering extended mode
! I can't write on file `letex1.log'.
 
$sudo pdflatex letex1.tex
Password:
This is pdfTeX, Version 3.14159265-2.6-1.40.17 (TeX Live 2016) (preloaded format=pdflatex)
  restricted \write18 enabled.
entering extended mode

[Johannes_B]

Installing TeX Live in your home directory would have made the whole installation yours, no need for the super user.

Everything in /usr/ is protected to be accessed only with sudo rights. And that is a good thing. You should keep it that way

You should never create your own documents, no matter if LaTeX or anything else in /usr/. Always do it somewhere in your /home/ directory (or a subdir of it).