How to change permissions for etc folder mac? When I check the permission on my etc folder using the alt + i command, I am not able to check the permission. As if the file had no permissions at all. 

This occured to me while I was trying to write some stuff in the hosts file.

I tried to manually chmod the file but I got an "operation not allowed".
The /etc directory on a mac isn't a directory at all, it's a symlink (shortcut). It redirects to private/etc.

You won't be able to chmod the directory, because it belongs to the root user by default. If you want to chmod it you'll have to prefix the command with 'sudo' to run as the superuser.

Bearing that in mind, make sure you know what you're doing before you start playing around with system directories and their permissions.