Unable to write to /tmp directory in macOS, unable to correct permissions: “Operation not permitted”

macOS El Capitan (10.11) is unable to install any software updates or install any software because the /tmp and the /private/tmp folders don't seem to be writeable.

Running this:

sudo /usr/libexec/repair_packages --repair --standard-pkgs --volume /

Gives me this error:

unable to set owner and group on "tmp" Error 1 Operation not permitted
unable to set permissions on "tmp" Error 1 Operation not permitted

Is there a way to manually delete the tmp folders and recreate them? When I tried renaming or deleting /tmp or /private/tmp I kept getting operation not permitted. sudo chmod 1777 also failed in the same way on both /tmp and /private/tmp folders

Disk Utility says the disk is healthy with no issues detected when running first aid.

Is there any way to redirect the tmp location to another writeable folder?

Ali

Posted 2016-10-09T16:45:25.970

Reputation: 1 151

1Did you disable SIP first? From Recovery; Terminal csrutil disable – Tetsujin – 2016-10-10T04:50:12.930

2I have the same problem. Followed Tetsujin's advice, restarted in recovery mode, and ran csrutil disable. After that, I was able to execute repair_packages with success and was able to access /tmp as usual. However, after going back to recovery mode and executing csrutil enable, my system is having the same problem. It seems the only way I can gain access to /tmp is by disabling System Integrity Protection. – Andrew Ferk – 2016-10-17T21:15:42.673

4I ended up going back to recovery mode and executing csrutil disable. After a restart, I removed tmp folder: sudo rm /tmp; sudo rm /private/tmp, created tmp folder sudo mkdir /private/tmp; sudo chown root:wheel /private/tmp; sudo chmod 1777 /private/tmp, created the symlink: sudo ln -s /private/tmp /tmp, and ran repair_pacakges again. After going back to recovery mode and running csrutil enable, all is working again! However, the permissions of /private/tmp used to be drwxrwxrwt@ and now they are drwxrwxrwt. I'm unsure what the @ is and if this will cause me problems. – Andrew Ferk – 2016-10-17T21:34:43.973

@AndrewFerk: see these posts http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/42177/what-does-signify-in-unix-file-permissions http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/10/what-does-the-mean-in-ls-l for explanation of the @ extended permissions marker

– Adam Michalik – 2016-10-18T07:25:16.410

Answers

Reboot your Mac into recovery mode
Open Utilities menu in the top bar > open Terminal
```
csrutil disable
```
Reboot

Remove the tmp folder

sudo rm -i /tmp
sudo rm -i /private/tmp

Create tmp folder

sudo mkdir /private/tmp
sudo chown root:wheel /private/tmp
sudo chmod 1777 /private/tmp

Create the symlink
```
sudo ln -s /private/tmp /tmp
```

Run repair_packages (you may not need to do this)

sudo /usr/libexec/repair_packages --repair --standard-pkgs --volume /

Reboot back to recovery mode and run
```
csrutil enable
```
Reboot

Props to Andrew Ferk for figuring out a fix; pulling out your comment as a community wiki answer so it's more readable.

ento

Posted 2016-10-09T16:45:25.970

Reputation: 256

2Thank you!!! I had spent 3 days pulling my hair out over this. No idea how the permissions got so screwed in the first place, but one day I turned on the mac to a selection of warnings, programs not working and an inability to install anything. This fixed that problem. – johngeorgewright – 2016-10-20T10:10:35.397

Why did you make this CW? – Revetahw says Reinstate Monica – 2016-10-24T13:31:20.967

1Because I didn't want to get credit for an answer which I merely converted from someone else's comment – ento – 2016-10-24T14:47:15.667

Alright, cool. BTW, I did not see your comment until now since there was no @Fiksdal. – Revetahw says Reinstate Monica – 2016-11-03T18:03:31.593

10.13: sudo: /usr/libexec/repair_packages: command not found – Даниил Пронин – 2018-02-27T05:16:04.743

sudo chmod 1777 /private/tmp

Did it for me.

Renetik

Posted 2016-10-09T16:45:25.970

Reputation: 111

I fixed this by restoring my system from a Time Machine Backup. But the other suggestions in the comments are worth trying too.

Ali

Posted 2016-10-09T16:45:25.970

Reputation: 1 151

If you got this message in terminal (or iTerm) using maxOS Mojave

Operation not permitted

It turned out I needed to add my terminal app to the Settings.app "Security & Privacy" > "Full Disk Access"
(I added both terminal.app and iTerm.app)

Aiden Moon

Posted 2016-10-09T16:45:25.970

Reputation: 1

-1

Try to create and modify permissions on /private/tmp folder without running csrutil disable. This worked for me, after trying unsuccessfully to delete and the error message on boot is gone.

user69083

Posted 2016-10-09T16:45:25.970

Reputation: 1

Welcome to Super User. Please don't post an answer to confirm that another answer worked. The site's Q&A format reserves answers for solutions to the question, and each answer should contribute another solution. The way to indicate that an answer was useful is to invest a little time in the site and you will gain sufficient privileges to upvote answers you like.

– fixer1234 – 2016-10-21T08:55:58.400