running MAC OS X maintenance scripts manually in terminal mode

Peter, maybe you might try the method described here.

Peter

-bash sudo: command not found

You have something seriously wrong with your Terminal and/or bash setup, but we'll get to that later.

For the moment, try

/usr/bin/sudo periodic daily weekly monthly

and let us know if it works. BTW, the weekly script takes some time, so you may want to try it with just the "daily" script first.

To check when they were last run, use:

/bin/ls -al /var/log/*.out

and note there is a space after "-al", which doesn't appear in your post.

In fact you may want to copy and paste those commands to avoid any typos.

Let us know if this works, when quoting the full path, and we can try to reinstate the default path for you. Does echo "hello" work?

Try the following:

/usr/bin/sudo /usr/sbin/periodic daily weekly

(22166)

Peter

sudo: periodic: command not found

Ah! I forgot the full path for periodic 😟 Try what Niel posted: that will work.

Now to fix your $PATH. First, open Terminal > Preferences. Under "When creating a new Terminal window:", do you have the first radio button selected? The one that says "Execute the default login shell using /usr/bin/login"? If not, select it. Also the "Open a saved .term file…" checkbox should not be checked. If you need to change these, do so, then quit Terminal and restart it.

Then copy and paste the following into the Terminal window, one line at a time, with a return after each line:

echo $PATH
/usr/bin/more /etc/profile

Copy and paste the results, including the commands, from the Terminal window to a post here.

One other question--which directory should I be in when I try to run these scripts?

If we get your $PATH right, it won't matter. When you start Terminal, you are automatically in your Home directory "/Users/<yourname>", abbreviated as '~'. You can always check which directory you are in with pwd (or /bin/pwd until we get your $PATH working).

Peter

Your /etc/profile is OK (I had to mount a 10.3.9 volume to check, because it has changed slightly in 10.4).

The big space between the profile command and the result was the way it displayed in my terminal window.

That's normal for more or less when the file is shorter than the Terminal window—it will fill to the bottom.

Somewhere your path is being wrongly set. Obviously, someone wanted to add ".:/usr/local/bin" to your path, but instead is overwriting it. The first thing to note is that adding '.' to your path is a security risk. If you really must have it, you should put it at the end. I never use it: I have a ~/bin directory for my own private stuff and add that to my path instead.

Now to this path corruption. First, move ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Terminal.plist to your Desktop, restart Terminal and repeat the echo $PATH command. If it has changed, post back to let us know the new value.

If it is unchanged, you can put that .plist back and restart Terminal again. Now you need to check the other files that bash reads on startup. After /etc/profile, it looks for, and executes the first one that exists, out of ~/.bash_profile, ~/.bash_login, and ~/.profile in that order. You should also check for ~/.bashrc, since this is run for a second and subsequent Terminal window, and is often sourced from one of the others.

You need to look for a line that says

export PATH=".:/usr/local/bin"

and change that to

export PATH="$PATH:/usr/local/bin/."

where I have added '.' as the last item in the path (safest place for it) but would urge you to leave that out.

Does this mean anything different than what you previously described?
All this means is that you are not listening to someone who is highly skilled in this area. Stay focused little grasshopper.

Peter

Sadly none of these scripts will work until you fix your $PATH. So look through the files I mentioned.

roam --
All too true.
Michael IS highly skilled.

Now, is your grasshopper reference regarding
Star Wars or Kung Fu?
Inquiring minds what to know

Peter, we're all wishing you the best.

Hi ~bee

It was the Kung Fu reference of the Master's gentle chide to the novice. Always a student, to those with greater knowledge I give respect, though Peter did not know he was being helped by a master.
In addition to knowledge, the second great quality is compassion, and on a yellow sticky at the back of my mind, you ~bee san are noted for a warm heart, and to that I give respect also.
In seeking to wed the two, one soars heavenly toward knowledge whilst one's forehead is smeared with the dust of humility.

Kung Fu and zen!

regards roam

Hey there, roam:

Morality of Deed:
Humility
Loyalty
Respect
Righteousness
& Trust

So far, it looks like you've got it all.
Keep on keepin' on!

iMac Intel2 -1GB; Mac G4 17" FP, 1 GHz, 768 MB RAM, and Mac Mini upstairs Mac OS X (10.4.9) Cable I'net; LaCie Ext. HD

So far, it looks like you've got it all.
No, I don't think so ~bee.

Perhaps we should stop this digression as it is just slightly off topic to the UNIX thread. I hope you don't mind.

Sorry to thread jack your post Peter.

kind regards, roam

Agreed.

Peter, how are you coming along?
Have you re-examined Michael's last suggestion yet?
Scapesuiter and Niel gave great advice, as well.