*BSD News Article 39553


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From: dobson@info.usuhs.mil (Michael Dobson)
Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.questions
Subject: Re: Errors in using VI
Date: 14 Dec 1994 14:57:40 -0500
Organization: Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences
Lines: 20
Message-ID: <3cnink$pgm@info.usuhs.mil>
References: <3cinge$q6j@crl9.crl.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: info.usuhs.mil

In article <3cinge$q6j@crl9.crl.com>, Brian T. Hovey <bhovey@crl.com> wrote:
>After setting up a standard account in FreeBSD, I'm getting errors when trying
>to use VI.  The error I'm getting is 'log db: Permission denied.  The only
>thing I did was change the adduser.sh script from /home to /usr/users.  Any
>fixes for this would be helpful.

The error message is misleading.  Try vi on a new file or with no filename
and you get an error about being unable to open the temp file because of no
permission.  This happens because vi wants to use /tmp for it's temporary
file.  The way FreeBSD 2.0R is set up, normal users cannot write to /tmp.
To fix this, log in as root, then chmod 1777 /tmp  This will make /tmp
world writable with the stickly bit set, same as /var/tmp.  With the sticky
bit set on a directory, only the file's owner or root can delete it.

Mike
-- 
LCDR M. Dobson               | NetNews Admin info.usuhs.mil
Experimental Hematology Dept | dobson@info.usuhs.mil
Armed Forces Radiobiology    |
Research Institute           | I don't have enough rank to speak for DoD