Question

Shell Script

Asked by: sarabmann

Shell script can be run by either . or exec command
but if we pass the comment in first line of the file,for instance #! /bin/bash or # !/bin/ksh etc then first line is interpreted as invocation to the shell.
Is it to execute the script/file we just type name of the file .
But when I type the file name ,it not execute and says the command not found.......
I suppose it is very,very simple question but I'm stuck

For example
vi  ss
--here file opened
# !/bin/bash ---first line
echo "hello"

wq! --file saved

------------------
prompt> ss

it says wrong command

prompt> exec ss
here it works

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Asked On
2004-06-19 at 09:07:21ID21031423
Tags

script

,

shell

Topic

Linux Programming

Participating Experts
4
Points
125
Comments
5

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Answers

 

by: brettmjohnsonPosted on 2004-06-19 at 13:09:10ID: 11352350

First, delete the space between # and ! in the "shebang" line:
#!/bin/bash


Then after saving the file, change its file permissions to include execute permissions:
prompt> chmod +x ss


Finally, if the current directory is not in the PATH, you may have to explicitly state
the directory when invoking the script:
prompt> ./ss

 

by: gethemantPosted on 2004-06-20 at 05:04:34ID: 11354119

Yeah..true if name of your shell script ss then you can't execute this script like.
$ ss
it will give error command not found.Because which commands are in your way is decided by the PATH variable.

So if you want to add current directory to the PATH from which you should be able execute shell script( or for a matter of fact any executable).

Then you should edit file..~/.bashrc
and put following lines in it.

PATH=$PATH:$HOME/bin:.
export PATH

and now execute the file .bashrc for the changes to take effect.using:
$ . .bashrc

And Voila..
$ ss
<<<command works>>

But you should know this is considered a bit insecure.So if you are a security freak avoid this.

 

by: ahoffmannPosted on 2004-06-21 at 02:25:12ID: 11357942

>  First, delete the space between # and ! in the "shebang" line:
NO, not necessary
anything else about chmod and PATH is ok ;-)

> Then you should edit file..~/.bashrc
everyone knows what happens to bash when using ~/.bashrc ? Think you should warn about the pros and cons of using bash this way.

Sorry for being picky.
As already said, the answer is:
  1. chmod +x ./ss
  2. ./ss
or
      PATH="$PATH":. ; ss

 

by: jmcgPosted on 2004-06-24 at 21:05:39ID: 11395444

Are there really some versions of Linux where there can be a space between the # and the ! on the shebang line? It looks to me like some environments fudge a failed exec by running /bin/bash on a file, but if you intended for some other program to be run, the space between # and ! prevents it from being recognized by the kernel.

A C program, calling exec on such a file, will get an ENOEXEC.

 

by: ahoffmannPosted on 2004-06-25 at 01:28:37ID: 11396449

damn, didn't read carefully, sorry
there *must not* be spaces between # and !,
I meant that there may be spaces between #! and the path
Shame on me.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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