Hi, I was editing one of the PATH variables holding file (~/.bash_profile or somewhere deeper), something went wrong and now terminal can't find any program (i.e. nano) or use sudo.
The problem is that to edit that file I need to be admin, but I can't use sudo. Any ideas?
Back up all data.
Select
Shell ▹ New Command
from the Terminal menu bar. Uncheck the box marked
Run command inside a shell
if checked.
Copy and paste the following line into the text box that opens, then press return:
mkdir disabled_shell_files
Close the Terminal window that opens. Repeat with this line:
mv .profile .bash_history .bash_profile .bashrc .inputrc disabled_shell_files
Your old shell initialization and history files will be saved in a directory named "disabled_shell_files" at the top level of your home directory. It's normal that some of these files will not exist, and therefore you will get some "no such file" errors.
Close the window, open a new one, and test.
Thank Linc,
I have tried your suggestion and it pointed me to the right direction. The suggested method, however created no files in /disabled_shell_files, which meant I have my paths set up somewhere else (?). I didn't know you can run commands outside shell, which worked with sudo. So I checked my /etc/profile and found the faulty line. I was able to remove it with sudo nano /etc/profile and it fixed the problem!
Thanks
By the way, the faulty line was "export PATH=/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:/Users/limmor1/Coursera$PATH". It was probably because I didn't include a colon on adding the last path.
It was probably because I didn't include a colon on adding the last path.
Correct.
Thank you
reply, it has also helped me
sudo: command not found - damaged PATH file in terminal. How to restore?
