sudo geany throws fatal error

Question

I really like the Geany text editor, and would like to use it instead of gedit for all text editing. However, every time I try to launch Geany from the terminal using sudo geany file.conf, I get this error:

(geany:10203): Geany-WARNING **: Geany tried to access the Unix Domain socket of another instance running as another user.

This is a fatal error and Geany will now quit.

I am the only user logged in to the machine. There are no instances of Geany already running when I type that command into the terminal. Geany has no trouble launching from the command line if I don't use a sudo. I also don't have any trouble running Gedit with elevated privileges; the command sudo gedit file.conf functions flawlessly.

What is going on here? How can I fix this so that I can edit text files in Geany with elevated privileges?

Solution

Try deleting this file:

sudo -H rm ~/.config/geany/geany_socket_*

if you want you can move them to some folder temporarily.

Comments

[Tim]

Why are you using sudo?

[dagrha]

I'm using sudo when I want to edit a file that needs elevated privileges; as just one example, /etc/samba/smb.conf

[DK Bose]

What about gksudo?

[Tim]

Right then, as the link above says, use gksudo.

[dagrha]

thanks, gksudo does the trick. why does sudo gedit work-- shouldn't gedit also need the gksudo?

[Tim]

It should... Gedit is assuming the user knows to do it right (not use sudo. It is a bad idea on GUI apps...

[Edward Torvalds]

sudo geany <filename> works fine for me, on ubuntu 14.04

[Rodrigo]

sudo geany <filename> has been working for more than a year. Today I got this error message for the first time.

[j0h]

Why does this error happen, and what can be done to prevent it?

[doug]

NOTE: sudo geany <filename> works fine on my Ubuntu 14.04 Works & a good idea aren't synonymous

[Edward Torvalds]

@doug i said that because some people in comment above are advising to use gksudo which may not solve the problem

[muru]

If you do want to use sudo, at least use sudo -H.

[Varshaan]

I had same issue manually I did delete the socket file in .cofig/geany and worked for me too thanks :)

[user568021]

Unbelieveable! I would never solve this on my own!

[Frank Nocke]

@edward-torvalds 'box' seems to be your specific machine name (as in uname -n). One better types sudo -H rm ~/.config/geany/geany_socket_ and then press tab to see, what comes for autocomple (i.e. __<my-machine>__0)