How can I exit from read-only mode in Vim?

Question

I opened a file in readonly mode; is there a way to get out of readonly mode?

Answer 1

You could do this:

:set noro

That unsets the read-only flag, but if the underlying file is still not writable by you then vim still will be unable to write to it.

Answer 2

You can run chmod from within vim:

:!chmod +w %

! means run a shell command, and % is the current filename. You can also just force the file write:

:w!

Answer 3

In addition to Michael Mrozek's answer, you can add a line to your .vimrc that allows you to write to a file that you have neglected to open with elevated permissions:

" Allows writing to files with root priviledges
cmap w!! w !sudo tee % > /dev/null

If the file is read only, you have only to enter :w!!, you will be prompted for your password and then the file will be successfully written to.

Answer 4

While :set noro does the job, it doesn't check if the file is opened by another vim instance or updates the file if changed externally.

In order to make it editable and check for swap files (which is the default opening a file with vim) just use the edit command (:help edit):

:e

Note, if the file has been manipulated ever since (even outside of vim), it will update the changes in the current buffer (which I find normally desirable).

Answer 5

Here I go, although a bit late, maybe you already solved your doubt ;) I haven't seen in any of the comments a way I know with vim, so, I add it:

Once you are editing a file, you press :w or :wq, and you see the annoying message "E45 'readonly' option is set (add ! to override)"

You can type

:w !sudo tee %

• w writes the buffer,
• !sudo calls the shell with sudo,
• tee redirects the output of vim :w to the output with tee, and
• % is the current filename

And that should do the trick. Note that this will prompt to reload the file in vim, for what you have to press L

Answer 6

Try this one:

vim -R "filename" 

it open in read only mode, then just do this command :q

I tried and it worked for me

Answer 7

Try using sudo. As root you need to open the file. Sudo is a command where you can request permission from linux.

eg.

sudo vim "filename"