#!/bin/bash - no such file or directory

I've created a bash script but when I try to execute it, I get

#!/bin/bash no such file or directory

I need to run the command: bash script.sh for it to work.

How can I fix this?

This kind of message is usually due to a bogus shebang line, either an extra carriage return at the end of the first line or a bom at the beginning of it.

Run:

$ head -1 yourscript | od -c

and see how it ends.

This is wrong.

0000000   #   !   /   b   i   n   /   b   a   s   h  \r  \n

This is wrong too.

0000000 357 273 277   #   !   /   b   i   n   /   b   a   s   h  \n

This is correct.

0000000   #   !   /   b   i   n   /   b   a   s   h  \n

Use dos2unix (or sed , tr , awk , perl , python …) to fix your script if this is the issue.

Here is one that will remove both of a bom and tailing crs.

sed -i '1s/^.*#//;s/\r$//' brokenScript

---

Note that the shell you are using to run the script will slightly affect the error messages that are displayed.

Here are three scripts just showing their name ( echo $0 ) and having the following respective shebang lines.

correctScript.

0000000   #   !   /   b   i   n   /   b   a   s   h  \n

scriptWithBom.

0000000 357 273 277   #   !   /   b   i   n   /   b   a   s   h  \n

scriptWithCRLF.

0000000   #   !   /   b   i   n   /   b   a   s   h  \r  \n

Under bash, running them will show these messages.

$ ./correctScript
./correctScript
$ ./scriptWithCRLF
bash: ./scriptWithCRLF: /bin/bash^M: bad interpreter: No such file or directory
$ ./scriptWithBom
./scriptWithBom: line 1: #!/bin/bash: No such file or directory
./scriptWithBom

Running the fake ones by explicitly calling the interpreter allows the script to run without problems

$ bash ./scriptWithCRLF
./scriptWithCRLF
$ bash ./scriptWithBom
./scriptWithBom: line 1: #!/bin/bash: No such file or directory
./scriptWithBom

Here is the behavior observed under ksh .

$ ./scriptWithCRLF
ksh: ./scriptWithCRLF: not found [No such file or directory]
$ ./scriptWithBom
./scriptWithBom[1]: #!/bin/bash: not found [No such file or directory]
./scriptWithBom

and under dash .

$ ./scriptWithCRLF
dash: 2: ./scriptWithCRLF: not found
$ ./scriptWithBom
./scriptWithBom: 1: ./scriptWithBom: #!/bin/bash: not found
./scriptWithBom