Pipe output to a file without permissions
Sometimes you want to redirect the output of a command into a file that you don't own. $ ls -al /tmp/root_owns_this -rw-r----- 1 root wheel 10 Aug 21 09:06 /tmp/root_owns_this $ echo "test" > /tmp/root_owns_this -bash: /tmp/root_owns_this: Permission denied Your first instinct may be to simply use sudo: $ sudo echo "test" > /tmp/root_owns_this -bash: /tmp/root_owns_this: Permission denied Same error. Why? Because sudo is only elevating the privileges of the echo command. The redirect still belongs to your shell. I'm aware of two options to get around this, although I'm sure there are others. $ echo "test" | sudo tee /tmp/root_owns_this # Create/overwrite the file test $ echo "test" | sudo tee -a /tmp/root_owns_this # Append to the file test or $ sudo bash -c "echo \"test\" > /tmp/root_owns_this" # Create/overwrite the file $ sudo bash -c "echo \"test\" >> /tmp/root_owns_this # Appe