# Permission Denied linux machine executor

**URL:** <https://discuss.circleci.com/t/permission-denied-linux-machine-executor/38263>\
**Category:** Build Environment\
**Tags:** circle-yml\
**Created:** [November 26, 2020, 3:26am UTC](https://discuss.circleci.com/t/permission-denied-linux-machine-executor/38263 "2020-11-26T03:26:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![adam2993](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ee59a6/32.png) [@adam2993](https://discuss.circleci.com/u/adam2993)\
**Post date:** [November 26, 2020, 3:26am UTC](https://discuss.circleci.com/t/permission-denied-linux-machine-executor/38263/1 "2020-11-26T03:26:39Z")

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Hi i’m new using circleci, I’m facing a permission problem using a linux machine executor, I required to be root all the time for my steps but if I don’t use sudo I get “permission denied”, so I couldn’t create a directory at /, using working directory argument and I’m getting errors, so how can I run my hold build as root

 ![pregunta circleci](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/circleci/original/3X/9/1/91e6072b2c0b241817624062ebb7bf4d511860af.png)

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**Author:** ![thekatertot](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/circleci/user_avatar/discuss.circleci.com/thekatertot/32/25169_2.png) [@thekatertot](https://discuss.circleci.com/u/thekatertot)\
**Post date:** [November 30, 2020, 11:44pm UTC](https://discuss.circleci.com/t/permission-denied-linux-machine-executor/38263/2 "2020-11-30T23:44:34Z")

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Hi @adam2993,

It looks like you’re creating and modifying directories outside of the default home directory so you need sudo/root permissions. Alternatively, you could work in the default home directory.

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**Author:** ![adam2993](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ee59a6/32.png) [@adam2993](https://discuss.circleci.com/u/adam2993)\
**Post date:** [December 1, 2020, 12:01am UTC](https://discuss.circleci.com/t/permission-denied-linux-machine-executor/38263/3 "2020-12-01T00:01:31Z")

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yes you are right, but in cases when I use the argument “working directory” and the directory that circleci will create is at /, I get permission denied when I’m using a machine executor… I already solved the problem but I really prefer to use docker image insted of machine executor

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**Author:** ![timothyclarke](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/circleci/user_avatar/discuss.circleci.com/timothyclarke/32/25019_2.png) [@timothyclarke](https://discuss.circleci.com/u/timothyclarke)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2020, 11:31am UTC](https://discuss.circleci.com/t/permission-denied-linux-machine-executor/38263/4 "2020-12-02T11:31:37Z")

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On your first line (with the `sudo mkdir`) the `sudo` part of that only applies to `mkdir` it does not apply after `&&` of the `&& cd /c/...`  
You would need to either add `sudo` immediately before `chmod` or you would need to pass the entire set of commands to sudo as a single command option eg  
`sudo sh -c 'mkdir -p ... && cd /c/... && chmod 777 ...'`

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**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/circleci/original/3X/5/1/511608acda8e85906e15909b57bd0a46c1dbe291.png) [@system](https://discuss.circleci.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2020, 11:31am UTC](https://discuss.circleci.com/t/permission-denied-linux-machine-executor/38263/5 "2020-12-12T11:31:41Z")

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