Bash script prints "Command Not Found" on empty lines

Question

Every time I run a script using bash scriptname.sh from the command line in Debian, I get Command Not found and then the result of the script.

The script works but there is always a Command Not Found statement printed on screen for each empty line. Each blank line is resulting in a command not found.

I am running the script from the /var folder.

Here is the script:

#!/bin/bash

echo Hello World

I run it by typing the following:

bash testscript.sh

Why would this occur?

Answer 1

Make sure your first line is:

#!/bin/bash

Enter your path to bash if it is not /bin/bash

---

Try running:

dos2unix script.sh

That wil convert line endings, etc from Windows to unix format. i.e. it strips \r (CR) from line endings to change them from \r\n (CR+LF) to \n (LF).

More details about the dos2unix command (man page)

---

Another way to tell if your file is in dos/Win format:

cat scriptname.sh | sed 's/\r/<CR>/'

The output will look something like this:

#!/bin/sh<CR>
<CR>
echo Hello World<CR>
<CR>

This will output the entire file text with <CR> displayed for each \r character in the file.