Ubuntu – Ubuntu complains that I am not “Owner” when copying files to certain folders

14.04directorypermissionsthemesusers

I am trying to copy a folder into the user/share/themes folder on Ubuntu 14.04, and it's telling me I cannot do this because I am not "owner". So I right-clicked the usr/share/themes folder > Properties > Permissions tab and tried to change the permissions but they're all greyed-out/disabled.

So then I opened up Terminal, entered groupmod TAB TAB TAB > sudo adduser jase root to try and get higher permissions or something – and it worked. I verified that I added myself as root by id jase. But that still didn't fix the problem. I still can't copy folders or files to usr/share/themes folder.

How can I do this? How do I become "owner"?

Best Answer

You copy the file using sudo

sudo cp file destination

For directories use th -R flag

sudo cp -R directory destination

If the files or directories have spaces, you have to quote or escape ( \ ) them

sudo cp "file with spaces" destination
sudo cp file\ with\ spaces destination

For information on Linux permissions and the use of sudo, see:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RootSudo

and

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/FilePermissions

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