terminal prob

conchubhar1

ls command in terminal returns this:

-bash: ls: command not found

what is the problem?

thanks

Talisman

Sounds like the PATH variable for the shell is messed up so it doesn't know where to look for the ls command.

In the terminal type "echo $PATH" (without quotes) and hit enter. That will display the PATH variable.

Here's the PATH variable for my system:

/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/X11/bin

Your PATH variable may be different as I have the Developer tools and Macports installed on my system.

You can edit the .profile file in the home directory to manually updated the PATH variable. The change should take effect the next time you login.

Otherwise you can manually provide the path to the command, i.e. "/bin/ls" instead of "ls", to execute the command.

conchubhar1

ok thanks

but i have no idea what you meant

this is what returned when i did that -

/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:

what does that mean?

the bin/ls works

pvik00

conchubhar1 wrote: »

ok thanks

but i have no idea what you meant

this is what returned when i did that -

/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:

what does that mean?

the bin/ls works

That means that your problem is what Talisman suggested. Something or someone misconfigured your environment scripts. You need to add those directories to your PATH that contain the most commonly used binaries, and remove the entries that don't. Do you at all have a /opt directory?
Just follow his solution, but be aware that Terminal and xterm behave differently when it comes to environment settings.

For the record, however, OS X these days sets PATH differently.
It calls /etc/profile, that calls /usr/libexec/path_helper. The latter script sets $PATH from the list contained in /etc/paths.

conchubhar1

Talisman wrote: »

You can edit the .profile file in the home directory to manually updated the PATH variable. The change should take effect the next time you login.

how do i edit it - edit it to what?

sorry if they are stupid question, but i am confused

conchubhar1

pvik00 wrote: »

That means that your problem is what Talisman suggested. Something or someone misconfigured your environment scripts. You need to add those directories to your PATH that contain the most commonly used binaries, and remove the entries that don't. Do you at all have a /opt directory?
Just follow his solution, but be aware that Terminal and xterm behave differently when it comes to environment settings.

For the record, however, OS X these days sets PATH differently.
It calls /etc/profile, that calls /usr/libexec/path_helper. The latter script sets $PATH from the list contained in /etc/paths.

that is all i understood - yes it is a ''directory''
thanks

Talisman

conchubhar1 wrote: »

ok thanks

but i have no idea what you meant

this is what returned when i did that -

/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:

what does that mean?

the bin/ls works

Something messed up the PATH variable.

When you type a command such as ls at the command line in the terminal window the OS looks in the directories specified in the PATH variable for the executable.

In your case the OS is only looking in the following two locations:
/opt/local/bin
/opt/local/sbin

pvik00

conchubhar1 wrote: »

that is all i understood - yes it is a ''directory''
thanks

OK, but do you or do you not have it on your system?
If you do, what's in it?

pvik00

conchubhar1 wrote: »

how do i edit it - edit it to what?

sorry if they are stupid question, but i am confused

No worries.
Just use any text editor on the system and edit it to look similar to what Talisman wrote earlier about how it generally looks.

Just to understand how yours went wrong, can you paste your /etc/paths?

Talisman

conchubhar1 wrote: »

how do i edit it - edit it to what?

sorry if they are stupid question, but i am confused

You need to add the missing locations to your PATH variable.

/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/X11/bin

For detailed instructions on how to edit the .profile file to correct the issue follow this link: OS X: Change your PATH environment variable

It's far more detailed than instructions that I could possibly post.

conchubhar1

ok
ill read through that and see whats what

thanks

conchubhar1

pvik00 wrote: »

No worries.
Just use any text editor on the system and edit it to look similar to what Talisman wrote earlier about how it generally looks.

Just to understand how yours went wrong, can you paste your /etc/paths?

-bash: /etc/paths: Permission denied

/opt

contains -

conchubhar1

ok

open .profile - ''open .profile
-bash: open: command not found''

is there anyway to restore terminal to default settings without reinstalling - because this looks fairly fooked

Talisman

Don't let not having a valid PATH variable frustrate the **** out of you trying to edit a file from the command line - help is at hand!

Download and install TextWrangler.

Launch TextWrangler and in the main menu go to "File > Open Hidden..."

Browse to your home directory and you'll see the elusive ".profile" file.

In the "Enable" drop down menu select "All Files" - this will allow you to select ".profile" for editing.

Once you have selected the file click "Open"

Make your changes and save the file.

Restart the system and you should be back in business.

conchubhar1

thank you for your help

ill download and see whats what now

conchubhar1

okay

i cant find .profile in textwrangler

cornbb

Try bin/open ~/.profile -a TextWrangler.app in Terminal

conchubhar1

bin/open ~/.profile -a TextWrangler.app
-bash: bin/open: No such file or director

Talisman

conchubhar1 wrote: »

okay

i cant find .profile in textwrangler

As a matter of interest do you see any of the hidden files in the home directory? I've attached a screen capture of some of the hidden files and folders that appear in the open hidden dialog on my computer for reference.

If there's no .profile file you can always create your own - just be sure that it's in the home directory.

For reference here is the default content of the .profile:

##
# DELUXE-USR-LOCAL-BIN-INSERT
# (do not remove this comment)
##
echo $PATH | grep -q -s "/usr/local/bin"
if [ $? -eq 1 ] ; then
    PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/bin
    export PATH
fi

pvik00

conchubhar1 wrote: »

bin/open ~/.profile -a TextWrangler.app
-bash: bin/open: No such file or director

A leading slash '/' is required:
/bin/open ~/.profile

It can also be /usr/bin/open, depending on your OS version.

Still, the easiest is if you address this via /etc/paths.
What is the current contents of that file?

Talisman

I've had a few more thoughts about this.

Can you run the following commands in the terminal shell:

/bin/ls -al /etc/paths

That will show you the timestamp of when the system paths file was last modified.

Also:

/bin/cat /etc/paths

That command will show you the contents of the file if it exists

The paths that appear in the /etc/paths file should be available to the logged in user by default unless a login script is messing things up.

Can you look for these hidden files in the home folder:
.bash_profile
.bash_login
.login

One of these could be messing up your PATH variable if there's no .profile and creating a new .profile may achieve nothing if that is the case.

conchubhar1

''defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
-bash: defaults: command not found''

i couldnt see hidden files so i googles and that command doesnt work

conchubhar1

''/bin/open ~/.profile
-bash: /bin/open: No such file or directory''

''/usr/bin/open
Usage: open [-e] [-t] [-f] [-W] [-n] [-g] [-h] [-b <bundle identifier>] [-a <application>] [filenames]
Help: Open opens files from a shell.
By default, opens each file using the default application for that file.
If the file is in the form of a URL, the file will be opened as a URL.
Options:
-a Opens with the specified application.
-b Opens with the specified application bundle identifier.
-e Opens with TextEdit.
-t Opens with default text editor.
-f Reads input from standard input and opens with TextEdit.
-W, --wait-apps Blocks until the used applications are closed (even if they were already running).
-n, --new Open a new instance of the application even if one is already running.
-g, --background Does not bring the application to the foreground.
-h, --header Searches header file locations for headers matching the given filenames, and opens them.''

okay - that did something. yay - havent the slighest what it means

''/etc/paths
-bash: /etc/paths: Permission denied''

i remember something about sudo - but that doesnt work here

conchubhar1

/bin/ls -al /etc/paths
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 45 22 Sep 2008 /etc/paths

on that note - this is a newer macbook as i got a replacement through insurance from apple so i got my files transfered so its not the same os as i had tiger this had leopard so in 2008 i didnt have this system

and

/bin/cat /etc/paths
/usr/bin
/bin
/usr/sbin
/sbin
/usr/local/bin

conchubhar1

Talisman wrote: »

One of these could be messing up your PATH variable if there's no .profile and creating a new .profile may achieve nothing if that is the case.

thanks for the help - both of ye


i seem to be having problems finding any hidden files - but if that is not there is there anything i can do to restore it to defaults and fix the command terminal without reinstalling leopard

pvik00

conchubhar1 wrote: »

thanks for the help - both of ye


i seem to be having problems finding any hidden files - but if that is not there is there anything i can do to restore it to defaults and fix the command terminal without reinstalling leopard

No worries.

You don't necessarily have to have any of these hidden files if all the rest of your shell initialization scripts exist and are in order.
In your case, it's either one of these scripts is misconfigured or you do have one of the .profle or .bash_profile files setting the unwanted values of PATH.

Your /etc/paths looks OK.
Can you paste the contents of /etc/profile and /usr/libexec/path_helper?

By the way, what is the default shell your Terminal uses? Initialization scripts differ for different type of shell.
Type
echo $SHELL

conchubhar1

/etc/profile and /usr/libexec/path_helper
-bash: /etc/profile: Permission denied

and

echo $SHELL
/bin/bash

pvik00

conchubhar1 wrote: »

/etc/profile and /usr/libexec/path_helper
-bash: /etc/profile: Permission denied

and

echo $SHELL
/bin/bash

You shouldn't run those scripts, you need to list the contents instead. This may hint us on where your environment is misconfigured.
Use the cat command:

cat /etc/profile

and

cat /usr/libexec/path_helper

conchubhar1

what do you mean dont run them but list the contents?


cat /etc/profile
-bash: cat: command not found

and

cat /usr/libexec/path_helper
-bash: cat: command not found

pvik00

conchubhar1 wrote: »

what do you mean dont run them but list the contents?


cat /etc/profile
-bash: cat: command not found

and

cat /usr/libexec/path_helper
-bash: cat: command not found

Exactly that.
It seems that 'cat' is not on your path, either.
Try /bin/cat, such as:

/bin/cat /etc/profile

/bin/cat /usr/libexec/path_helper

conchubhar1

/bin/cat /etc/profile
# System-wide .profile for sh(1)

if [ -x /usr/libexec/path_helper ]; then
eval `/usr/libexec/path_helper -s`
fi

if [ "${BASH-no}" != "no" ]; then
[ -r /etc/bashrc ] && . /etc/bashrc
fi
export PATH=/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:$PA TH
export MANPATH=/opt/local/man:$MANPATH

and

/bin/cat /usr/libexec/path_helper
#!/bin/sh
#
# Each line of the text files in /etc/paths are directories that should be
# added to the current path. We source /etc/paths/default first, so that
# the default paths (/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin) appear early in the path.
#

shopt -s extglob
function read_path_dir () {
DIR="$1"
NEWPATH="$2"
SEP=""
IFS=$'\n'
if [ -d "$DIR".d ]; then
for f in "$DIR" "$DIR".d/* ; do
if [ -f "$f" ]; then
for p in $(< "$f") ; do
"$NEWPATH" = *(*:)${p}*(:*) && continue
[ ! -z "$NEWPATH" ] && SEP=":"
NEWPATH="${NEWPATH}${SEP}${p}"
done
fi
done
fi
echo $NEWPATH
}

P=`read_path_dir /etc/paths "$PATH"`
MP=`read_path_dir /etc/manpaths "$MANPATH"`

if [ "$1" == "-c" -o \( -z "$1" -a "${SHELL%csh}" != "$SHELL" \) ]; then
echo setenv PATH \"$P\"\;
echo setenv MANPATH \"$MP\"\;
exit 0
elif [ "$1" == "-s" -o -z "$1" ]; then
echo PATH=\"$P\"\; export PATH;
echo MANPATH=\"$MP\"\; export MANPATH;
exit 0
else
echo "usage: path_helper [-c | -s]" 1>&2
exit 1
fi


i have no idea what any of that means