Cant copy linux file

[Lectrician]

I can usually manipulate files using SFTP to my linux server easily.

I am trying to copy a file to my local machine to modify and put back. I can do this in most directorys, but for some reason I can't do this with any files (it appears) in the /etc dir??

Is this just me? Am I missing something obvious??

 

[munkyeetr]

Try doing it with sudo or su to root and try again.

 

[tlarkin]

if you are doing this over a network, you can simply enable ssh connections and then ssh into your linux machine remotely and use vi, pico, or nano (your choice) to edit the file in the terminal. I use pico all the time, that way there would be no need to copy, modify, and copy it back.

Just make sure you make back ups of the files you modify before you modify them, the cp command is your friend

 

[Runn3r.cze]

and are you sure you have got permissions for writing to /etc directory???