Executable file named 'test' is in $PATH but won't run
I have a file in $HOME/bin (before you ask, yes, it is in my path) called test which I've confirmed can be executed fine when I run it with the full path to the file. However, I get a really weird issue when I don't run it this way. When I just run test in the terminal, it doesn't do anything and returns immediately. I know that this isn't an issue of finding the file for several reasons:
There is no error message. Normally if the file can't be found or can't be executed a message will be printed out saying so.
Running
which teststill returns the correct file path.Probably the weirdest of all - the script works fine when run through
strace. I tried usingstraceto see if I could figure out what was going on but when I ran it withstrace, it worked as expected with 0 issues.
bash shell-script path executable strace
edited 4 hours ago
ivan_pozdeev
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asked yesterday
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I have a file in $HOME/bin (before you ask, yes, it is in my path) called test which I've confirmed can be executed fine when I run it with the full path to the file. However, I get a really weird issue when I don't run it this way. When I just run test in the terminal, it doesn't do anything and returns immediately. I know that this isn't an issue of finding the file for several reasons:
There is no error message. Normally if the file can't be found or can't be executed a message will be printed out saying so.
Running
which teststill returns the correct file path.Probably the weirdest of all - the script works fine when run through
strace. I tried usingstraceto see if I could figure out what was going on but when I ran it withstrace, it worked as expected with 0 issues.
bash shell-script path executable strace
edited 4 hours ago
ivan_pozdeev
36619
asked yesterday
ContronThePandaContronThePanda
613
New contributor
ContronThePanda is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
7
Usetype, notwhich. See Why not use “which”? What to use then?
– wjandrea
yesterday
First tip at wiki-dev.bash-hackers.org/scripting/debuggingtips
– Mark Wagner
6 hours ago
add a comment |
I have a file in $HOME/bin (before you ask, yes, it is in my path) called test which I've confirmed can be executed fine when I run it with the full path to the file. However, I get a really weird issue when I don't run it this way. When I just run test in the terminal, it doesn't do anything and returns immediately. I know that this isn't an issue of finding the file for several reasons:
There is no error message. Normally if the file can't be found or can't be executed a message will be printed out saying so.
Running
which teststill returns the correct file path.Probably the weirdest of all - the script works fine when run through
strace. I tried usingstraceto see if I could figure out what was going on but when I ran it withstrace, it worked as expected with 0 issues.
bash shell-script path executable strace
edited 4 hours ago
ivan_pozdeev
36619
asked yesterday
ContronThePandaContronThePanda
613
New contributor
ContronThePanda is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
I have a file in $HOME/bin (before you ask, yes, it is in my path) called test which I've confirmed can be executed fine when I run it with the full path to the file. However, I get a really weird issue when I don't run it this way. When I just run test in the terminal, it doesn't do anything and returns immediately. I know that this isn't an issue of finding the file for several reasons:
There is no error message. Normally if the file can't be found or can't be executed a message will be printed out saying so.
Running
which teststill returns the correct file path.Probably the weirdest of all - the script works fine when run through
strace. I tried usingstraceto see if I could figure out what was going on but when I ran it withstrace, it worked as expected with 0 issues.
bash shell-script path executable strace
bash shell-script path executable strace
edited 4 hours ago
ivan_pozdeev
36619
asked yesterday
ContronThePandaContronThePanda
613
New contributor
ContronThePanda is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
edited 4 hours ago
ivan_pozdeev
36619
asked yesterday
ContronThePandaContronThePanda
613
New contributor
ContronThePanda is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
edited 4 hours ago
ivan_pozdeev
36619
edited 4 hours ago
ivan_pozdeev
36619
edited 4 hours ago
ivan_pozdeev
36619
36619
asked yesterday
ContronThePandaContronThePanda
613
New contributor
ContronThePanda is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
asked yesterday
ContronThePandaContronThePanda
613
asked yesterday
ContronThePandaContronThePanda
613
613
New contributor
ContronThePanda is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
New contributor
ContronThePanda is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
ContronThePanda is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
7
Usetype, notwhich. See Why not use “which”? What to use then?
– wjandrea
yesterday
First tip at wiki-dev.bash-hackers.org/scripting/debuggingtips
– Mark Wagner
6 hours ago
add a comment |
7
Usetype, notwhich. See Why not use “which”? What to use then?
– wjandrea
yesterday
First tip at wiki-dev.bash-hackers.org/scripting/debuggingtips
– Mark Wagner
6 hours ago
7
7
Use
type, not which. See Why not use “which”? What to use then?– wjandrea
yesterday
Use
type, not which. See Why not use “which”? What to use then?– wjandrea
yesterday
First tip at wiki-dev.bash-hackers.org/scripting/debuggingtips
– Mark Wagner
6 hours ago
First tip at wiki-dev.bash-hackers.org/scripting/debuggingtips
– Mark Wagner
6 hours ago
add a comment |
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
test is an unfortunate name to use, it's the standard utility for conditional tests. (It's actually the same command as the [ in if [ ... ], it just looks like a syntactical thing, but is really just a normal command.)
test is also builtin in e.g. Bash, so running just test never looks up your binary from the path.
bash$ help test | head
test: test [expr]
Evaluate conditional expression.
Exits with a status of 0 (true) or 1 (false) depending on
the evaluation of EXPR. Expressions may be unary or binary.
[...]
test with no arguments just returns 1 (false).
Running strace test doesn't involve the shell builtin, since strace doesn't implement any utilities itself. It just uses what it finds in your PATH. Note that you probably have the standard test in /bin/test or /usr/bin/test, so if that would be first in PATH, strace would run run that.
On my Bash, which is also an external command, so it doesn't have an idea about builtins either. On the other hand, the type command is builtin to the shell, and type test would show that test is a shell builtin.
See also: Why not use "which"? What to use then?
answered yesterday
ilkkachuilkkachu
58.1k889164
11
Have an anecdote from 1985.
– JdeBP
yesterday
add a comment |
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test is an unfortunate name to use, it's the standard utility for conditional tests. (It's actually the same command as the [ in if [ ... ], it just looks like a syntactical thing, but is really just a normal command.)
test is also builtin in e.g. Bash, so running just test never looks up your binary from the path.
bash$ help test | head
test: test [expr]
Evaluate conditional expression.
Exits with a status of 0 (true) or 1 (false) depending on
the evaluation of EXPR. Expressions may be unary or binary.
[...]
test with no arguments just returns 1 (false).
Running strace test doesn't involve the shell builtin, since strace doesn't implement any utilities itself. It just uses what it finds in your PATH. Note that you probably have the standard test in /bin/test or /usr/bin/test, so if that would be first in PATH, strace would run run that.
On my Bash, which is also an external command, so it doesn't have an idea about builtins either. On the other hand, the type command is builtin to the shell, and type test would show that test is a shell builtin.
See also: Why not use "which"? What to use then?
answered yesterday
ilkkachuilkkachu
58.1k889164
11
Have an anecdote from 1985.
– JdeBP
yesterday
add a comment |
test is an unfortunate name to use, it's the standard utility for conditional tests. (It's actually the same command as the [ in if [ ... ], it just looks like a syntactical thing, but is really just a normal command.)
test is also builtin in e.g. Bash, so running just test never looks up your binary from the path.
bash$ help test | head
test: test [expr]
Evaluate conditional expression.
Exits with a status of 0 (true) or 1 (false) depending on
the evaluation of EXPR. Expressions may be unary or binary.
[...]
test with no arguments just returns 1 (false).
Running strace test doesn't involve the shell builtin, since strace doesn't implement any utilities itself. It just uses what it finds in your PATH. Note that you probably have the standard test in /bin/test or /usr/bin/test, so if that would be first in PATH, strace would run run that.
On my Bash, which is also an external command, so it doesn't have an idea about builtins either. On the other hand, the type command is builtin to the shell, and type test would show that test is a shell builtin.
See also: Why not use "which"? What to use then?
answered yesterday
ilkkachuilkkachu
58.1k889164
11
Have an anecdote from 1985.
– JdeBP
yesterday
add a comment |
test is an unfortunate name to use, it's the standard utility for conditional tests. (It's actually the same command as the [ in if [ ... ], it just looks like a syntactical thing, but is really just a normal command.)
test is also builtin in e.g. Bash, so running just test never looks up your binary from the path.
bash$ help test | head
test: test [expr]
Evaluate conditional expression.
Exits with a status of 0 (true) or 1 (false) depending on
the evaluation of EXPR. Expressions may be unary or binary.
[...]
test with no arguments just returns 1 (false).
Running strace test doesn't involve the shell builtin, since strace doesn't implement any utilities itself. It just uses what it finds in your PATH. Note that you probably have the standard test in /bin/test or /usr/bin/test, so if that would be first in PATH, strace would run run that.
On my Bash, which is also an external command, so it doesn't have an idea about builtins either. On the other hand, the type command is builtin to the shell, and type test would show that test is a shell builtin.
See also: Why not use "which"? What to use then?
answered yesterday
ilkkachuilkkachu
58.1k889164
test is an unfortunate name to use, it's the standard utility for conditional tests. (It's actually the same command as the [ in if [ ... ], it just looks like a syntactical thing, but is really just a normal command.)
test is also builtin in e.g. Bash, so running just test never looks up your binary from the path.
bash$ help test | head
test: test [expr]
Evaluate conditional expression.
Exits with a status of 0 (true) or 1 (false) depending on
the evaluation of EXPR. Expressions may be unary or binary.
[...]
test with no arguments just returns 1 (false).
Running strace test doesn't involve the shell builtin, since strace doesn't implement any utilities itself. It just uses what it finds in your PATH. Note that you probably have the standard test in /bin/test or /usr/bin/test, so if that would be first in PATH, strace would run run that.
On my Bash, which is also an external command, so it doesn't have an idea about builtins either. On the other hand, the type command is builtin to the shell, and type test would show that test is a shell builtin.
See also: Why not use "which"? What to use then?
answered yesterday
ilkkachuilkkachu
58.1k889164
edited 19 hours ago
answered yesterday
ilkkachuilkkachu
58.1k889164
answered yesterday
ilkkachuilkkachu
58.1k889164
answered yesterday
ilkkachuilkkachu
58.1k889164
58.1k889164
11
Have an anecdote from 1985.
– JdeBP
yesterday
add a comment |
11
Have an anecdote from 1985.
– JdeBP
yesterday
11
11
Have an anecdote from 1985.
– JdeBP
yesterday
Have an anecdote from 1985.
– JdeBP
yesterday
add a comment |
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7
Use
type, notwhich. See Why not use “which”? What to use then?– wjandrea
yesterday
First tip at wiki-dev.bash-hackers.org/scripting/debuggingtips
– Mark Wagner
6 hours ago