{"id":2257,"date":"2022-10-06T22:15:05","date_gmt":"2022-10-06T20:15:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nguenkam.com\/blog\/?p=2257"},"modified":"2022-10-12T01:00:14","modified_gmt":"2022-10-11T23:00:14","slug":"fixes-bash-script-error-bin-bashm-bad-interpreter-no-such-file-or-directory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nguenkam.com\/blog\/index.php\/2022\/10\/06\/fixes-bash-script-error-bin-bashm-bad-interpreter-no-such-file-or-directory\/","title":{"rendered":"[ Fixes ] Bash script Error \/bin\/bash^M: bad interpreter: No such file or directory"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Have you ever been slapped with the \/bin\/bash^M: bad interpreter: No such file or directory error<\/span> when trying to run a bash script, be it from cron or command line?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This issue is caused when you create scripts in Windows <\/strong>environments and then port them over to run on a Unix<\/strong> environment : Unix uses different line endings therefore it can\u2019t properly read the file you created on Windows<\/em>. Bash scripts on the other hand are quite sensitive to line-endings. This is not just limited to the script itself. it extends to the data that the script processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With that in mind, it is important that one should have Unix-style line-endings, i.e., each line is terminated with a Line Feed character \\n<\/strong> which is (decimal 10, hex 0A in ASCII).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Windows or DOS-style line endings, each line is terminated with a Carriage Return followed by a Line Feed character \\r\\n<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Bash script sees the Carriage Return \\r<\/strong> as ^M<\/strong>. In this case, the Carriage Return (^M<\/strong> or \\r<\/strong>) is not treated as whitespace. and is appended to the line as text wherever it appears at line endings. So this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

!\/bin\/bash   <\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
becomes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
!\/bin\/bash^M<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Since there is no interpreter, command, directory, or file called bash^M we get the bad interpreter: No such file or directory error.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
How to fix it ?<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
Since we know ^M is an illegal character the simple solution is to get rid of it. We will just show you two simple ways to do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n