How do I copy a file/folder from another user's home directory in Linux?

I want to copy a file/folder from another user's home directory to my home directory in Linux.

I cannot access his directory, because it says permission denied. I'm 100% sure that a file can be copied from another user's home directory, because someone has showed me how, but I have forgotten.

This is what I'm currently doing:

[my_user@server1 users]$ cp /users/other_user/file /users/my_user
cp: cannot stat `/users/other_user/file': Permission denied
[my_user@server1 users]$ mv /users/other_user/file /users/my_user
mv: cannot stat `/users/other_user/file': Permission denied

How can I do it?

Solution 1:

If you don't have permission, then you can't copy the file.

The only ways around that are by elevating your permissions, for example by becoming root or the other user. You could try 'scp':

scp other_user@localhost:file .

or copy the file as root (but then be aware that the destination file is owned by root).

Solution 2:

The other user either needs to give you read access (and execute access on the directories).

You can most repeatably do this by creating a group and having both of you join it, then granting appropriate access to the group.

You can also copy the file as root, if it's one-time, then use chown/chgrp to reset the permissions to your user.

(It may also be easier to request the other user copy the file into a folder you set up.)