Move a file to a directory requiring root permission

I'm a complete noob to Linux and Ubuntu. I'm running Ubuntu Studio 20.04. I downloaded a plugin for Audacity that needs to go from home/greg/downloads into usr/share/audacity/plug-ins. I tried the simple click and drag method but it just goes back to my downloads folder. I don't know how to get root permission to move the file and I can't seem to get the command right.

My two questions:

1. How can I move this file to a place requiring root permission.
2. What resources would you recommend for learning to be a competent ubuntu user?

Thanks for your help.

2 Answers

you can move the file in the terminal:

sudo mv $HOME/Downloads/<PLUGIN FOLDER> /usr/share/audacity/plug-ins

How can I move this file to a place requiring root permission.

You use your admin account and put sudo in front of a command

What resources would you recommend for learning to be a competent ubuntu user

AskUbuntu, Ubuntuforums are the two main resources for me. I did it like this: search AskUbuntu for questions without an answer, find an answer on my own system, using google and posting the answer. It helps having generic knowledge about computers and know how to code though.

I downloaded a plugin for Audacity that needs to go from /home/greg/Downloads into /usr/share/audacity/plug-ins.

Please opt for adding plugins in your HOME if you have a single user system.

Audacityplugins are provided in different styles. They have a FAQ that explains a lot of these. There are 4 (ignoring the deprecated plugins) and each has their own installation method. Since you did not provide what kind it is here are then main four (see the link for more details):

• Nyquist plug-ins

Per user installation

It is also possible to add a new Nyquist plug-in manually by adding it to the correct location that Audacity expects, it can be performed with standard user permissions.

If it does not already exist, create a folder called .audacity-files in your home directory. Note that the dot as the first character indicates that this will be a hidden folder, so if using a graphical file browser, enable viewing hidden files (for most graphical file browsers, this is an option in the "View" menu). Add a sub-directory to .audacity-files and name it plug-ins. The location of this folder may be described as ~/.audacity-file/plug-ins, where "~/" means your home folder.

Copy or move the Nyquist plug-in file (with ny or NY file name extension) into the ~/.audacity-files/plug-ins folder.

If the plug-in includes a help file or help folder, that file should usually be copied or moved to the same location as the NY file. Check the plug-in documentation for details. To enable the new effects so they are available in the Audacity menu, use the Plug-in Manager: Effects, Generators and Analyzers dialog.

System-wide installation

This will install the plug-in for all users and requires root permissions.

Copy or move the Nyquist plug-in file (with ny or NY file name extension) into: /usr/share/audacity/plug-ins if Audacity was installed from a repository package /usr/local/share/audacity/plug-ins if you compiled Audacity from source code.

If the plug-in includes a help file or help folder, that file should usually be copied or moved to the same location as the NY file. Check the plug-in documentation for details.

To enable the new effects so they are available in the Audacity menu for the current user, use the Plug-in Manager: Effects, Generators and Analyzers dialog.

• VST plug-ins

Audacity can also load VST plug-ins from other system and user locations including:

All paths listed in the "VST_PATH" environment variable
$HOME/.vst
LIBDIR/vst (where LIBDIR is defined at build time)
/usr/lib/vst
/usr/local/lib/vst

• LV2 plug-ins

To add a new LV2 effect, place its complete ".lv2" folder (not the files alone) at the top level of any of the following searched for locations:

$HOME/.lv2
/usr/local/lib/lv2 or /usr/local/lib64/lv2
/usr/lib/lv2 or /usr/lib64/lv2

• Vamp plug-ins

Vamp plug-ins may be installed in

$HOME/vamp
$HOME/.vamp
/usr/local/lib/vamp
/usr/lib/vamp.

The one with $HOME are personal and you can use cp or mv without sudo. All the others need sudo in front of the cp and the mv