<p> I suppose that was the obvious joke.</p> <p> Here&#39;s something that I&#39;ve known about for awhile, and used occasionally, but have only now decided I will <strong>learn</strong> and <strong>retain</strong>: you can edit local files as another user (including root) using <code class="verbatim">TRAMP</code> and <code class="verbatim">sudo</code>.</p> <p> All you have to do is <code class="verbatim">C-x C-f (find-file)</code> to open a file, then type <code class="verbatim">/sudo:</code>. This will start prompting you for the user and host information, and then a password (<em>your</em> password), at which point you will be able to use filename autocompletion and such to your heart&#39;s content to load a file that you would otherwise not be able to access.</p>