Terminal > "-bash: command not found" for almost anything!! Mac OS X Snow Leopard

[macmania82]

Hi friends,

I'm using Mac OS X Snow Leopard.

whenever I try almost any command at Terminal, I come across an annoying message like:

-bash: unzip: command not found
this is a sample for i tried unzip, but it happens for so many other command as well

so what is that? do I need to install anything to make terminal work with these commands?

Appreciate helps! thanks

[angelwatt]

Sounds like the path variable may have gotten befuddled. Try running the following,

/bin/echo $PATH

I get the following, but yours won't be exactly the same.

/opt/local/bin:opt/local/sbin:/Applications/MAMP/bin/php5/bin:/Applications/MAMP/Library/bin:/Applications/Adobe AIR SDK/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/X11/bin

[macmania82]

/bin/echo $PATH

give the line below:

/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/bin:/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/Current/bin:/opt/subversion/bin/:PATH

so what does it mean? :/

[belvdr]

Originally Posted by macmania82

/bin/echo $PATH

give the line below:

/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/bin:/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/Current/bin:/opt/subversion/bin/:PATH

so what does it mean? :/

Your PATH is messed up, particularly the end of it. Were you modifying /etc/bashrc or .bashrc in your home directory?

You want to modify the PATH line above so the final word is $PATH, not just PATH.

[angelwatt]

In addition to the above, the change could have been made in a .profile folder in your home directory. This file and those mentioned by belvdr are hidden files so you will not see them in Finder unless you have hidden files shown. You may not have edited these files, some programs will edit them too, but if that's the case then they have a typo to fix.

To open these hidden files from Terminal,

/usr/bin/pico filename

I believe that's the full path to the pico editor. Not at my Mac to be certain. Alternatively,

open -t filename

will open the file in TextEdit. Just make sure TextEdit edits it as plain text instead of rich text. As a last alternative, use TextWrangler, which has a open hidden option to get to these files.