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I followed these instructions to remove Java from my Mac (Lion): http://stikine.wordpress.com/2012/03/02/howto-remove-java/ As part of the procedure, I needed to edit the file /Library/Receipts/InstallHistory.plist

I followed these steps:

  1. sudo bash (supplied password)
  2. cp /Library/Receipts/InstallHistory.plist ~/Desktop
  3. chown userx:staff ~/Desktop/InstallHistory.plist (I'm userx, permissions were -rw-r--r-- 1 root admin)
  4. edited ~/Desktop/InstallHistory.plist and closed
  5. chown root:wheel ~/Desktop/InstallHistory.plist

All was well until the final step (#5):

mv ~/Desktop/InstallHistory.plist /Library/Receipt/

which produced the message:

mv: rename /Users/caryswoveland/Desktop/InstallHistory.plist to /Library/Receipt/: No such file or directory

I don't know a great deal about Unix.

What's the problem?

4
  • a chown operation is NOT going to produce a 'rename' error...
    – Marc B
    May 25, 2013 at 2:43
  • Why did you have to do step 3 if you were sudo into bash? And did you do a Ctrl-D before you did the mv that gave you the error?
    – lurker
    May 25, 2013 at 2:56
  • @mbratch per the instructions linked, step 4 was with a gui editor, hence permission change... but yes, would have been so much easier to just sudo vim, and make the changes.
    – demure
    May 25, 2013 at 3:03
  • Are you sure the file exists?
    – soandos
    May 28, 2013 at 20:10

1 Answer 1

4

You copied from:

  • /Library/Receipts

You tried (but failed) to copy to:

  • /Library/Receipt/

Try adding the missing s.

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  • That will do it every time. I just copied that, missing s and all. Thanks.
    – Cary Swoveland
    May 25, 2013 at 3:30
  • 1
    Be grateful you copied the trailing slash. Without that, you'd have had a file /Library/Receipt and the original version of the file /Library/Receipts/InstallHistory.plist, and that would lead to further confusion down the road. And let he who has never made a similar mistake cast the first stone — and when that stone is lobbed, I'll show you a rank novice programmer. Nevertheless, I don't think this Q&A is going to be a lot of help to future users. May 25, 2013 at 3:45

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