"Permission denied" error when editing /etc/ld.so.conf

Question

When I run this command it fails:

sudo echo '/usr/local/lib' >> /etc/ld.so.conf 
bash: /etc/ld.so.conf: Permission denied

I don't have any problem running sudo for other tasks. I am using Ubuntu 12.04. It works when connected as root.

Any help will be much appreciated

You do a sudo echo but the remainder of that command is NOT executed as sudo (the rerouting is not done as sudo ;-) ) — Rinzwind, Apr 10, 2013 at 10:18

Rinzwind · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-10 10:20:46Z

22

From memory this should do it:

sudo sh -c "echo '/usr/local/lib' >> /etc/ld.so.conf"

answered Apr 10, 2013 at 10:20

Rinzwind

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2

Could you add an explanation on why this works?
– Bar
Apr 1, 2016 at 12:06
1

@Bar I think it works because sudo only applies to one command at a time. The quotes group two commands (an echo followed by an >>) into one. An alternate approach is to open an editor with sudo and do the edits manually, i.e. sudo gedit /usr/local/lib.
– apostl3pol
Oct 2, 2016 at 20:13

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