\chown
them to a non root user?
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