Mac – Unknown error message in Terminal .bash_profile

errormacterminal

-bash: export: =': not a valid identifier -bash: export:0de946b3adfc5de6336ff06ca740ffbeba68f055323038a179def14f63ee3b1b7aa0b50bdd8a7b7578d8c19f1a5e62fff0047843b252e551426e2c0a5f49ee88': not a valid identifier

I was following a guide to install postgres , and i added a PATH to .bash_profile .Then i deleted it and now i am facing this error every time i open the terminal.

This is my bash profile

[[ -s "$HOME/.profile" ]] && source "$HOME/.profile" # Load the default .profile

if which rbenv > /dev/null; then eval "$(rbenv init -)"; fi
if which rbenv > /dev/null; then eval "$(rbenv init -)"; fi


[[ -s "$HOME/.rvm/scripts/rvm" ]] && source "$HOME/.rvm/scripts/rvm" # Load RVM into a shell session *as a function*
export SECRET_KEY_BASE = 0de946b3adfc5de6336ff06ca740ffbeba68f055323038a179def14f63ee3b1b7aa0b50bdd8a7b7578d8c19f1a5e62fff0047843b252e551426e2c0a5f49ee88

Best Answer

If you want to export a variable, the variable name, the equal sign and the value of the variable mustn't be separated by spaces! Especially the equal sign is no valid variable name and surrounded by spaces it's interpreted as such resulting in the "=': not a valid identifier" error message.

So change the line

export SECRET_KEY_BASE = 0de946b3adfc5de6336ff06ca740ffbeba68f055323038a179def14f63ee3b1b7aa0b50bdd8a7b7578d8c19f1a5e62fff0047843b252e551426e2c0a5f49ee88

export SECRET_KEY_BASE=0de946b3adfc5de6336ff06ca740ffbeba68f055323038a179def14f63ee3b1b7aa0b50bdd8a7b7578d8c19f1a5e62fff0047843b252e551426e2c0a5f49ee88

and either re-source .bash_profile or close your current Terminal window and open a new one to get rid of the error.

Related Solutions

MacOS – Does Mac OS X’s bash read scripts for all users (tab-completion scripts) from /opt/local/etc/bash_completion.d path

Bash only reads scripts by default in your home directory, or if they are missing in /etc. See Bash's documentation. If using OSX's Terminal.app then by default it reads ~/.bash_profile.

This is true of all bash on Linux or other OSes.

To read from another directory e.g. /opt/local/etc/bash_completion.d you have to edit your start up files to source (i.e. include) the files from there

The instructions for the script do not mention /opt/local/... which is a non standard location on any Unix. (by non-standard it is allowed to be used by third party packages but not defined what should be in there) They say

Copy this file to somewhere (e.g. ~/.git-completion.sh).
Add the following line to your .bashrc/.zshrc:
source ~/.git-completion.sh
Consider changing your PS1 to also show the current branch, see git-prompt.sh for details.

The progit quote assumes you know bash. All it is saying is put the files from the first quote into a specific place if you want all users on the machine to use them and not in ~ where only the user installing it can see them. i.e. the point is multi user versus single user.

He also picks that path as nothing else uses it and you should not edit /etc files in OS X as Apple's OS upgrades could overwrite them so you need to choose another place. (I would have chosen something under /usr/local as there is where manually maintained scripts are meant to go).

~/.bashrc is the correct place to edit and add the source. See your other question and the bash manual for setting up ~/.bash_profile The bash suggested way is source .bashrc into .bash_profile. Note that on OS X using Terminal.app is not the one way of running shells so there can be sessions starting with .bashrc.

MacOS – Unknown error message in Terminal

.zshrc is a file run when you start an interactive zsh shell, found in your home directory. The error message says you have an export command which is written incorrectly on line 48. not valid in this context means you're trying to export something that's not a variable. It looks like you're trying to add stuff to your PATH, but are substituting the current path inside the zshrc file. Check that line in the file, there's probably a line along the lines of:

export $PATH=/some/directory/to/add/to/path/:$PATH

You just need to remove the first $ because it's substituting the current path there instead of assigning the PATH variable:

export PATH=/some/directory/to/add/to/path/:$PATH

See https://stackoverflow.com/questions/22394367/zsh-error-export54-not-valid-in-this-context

Best Answer

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MacOS – Does Mac OS X’s bash read scripts for all users (tab-completion scripts) from /opt/local/etc/bash_completion.d path

MacOS – Unknown error message in Terminal

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