Bash – Cannot exec /bin/false: no such file or directory

bashosxshell

I'm trying to open GNU Screen with the following command on my Mac OS:

host:~ user$ screen

The screen terminal opens but quickly dies with the error message:

Cannot exec /bin/false: no such file or directory

My terminal is configured to open bash shell on startup. I've tried setting the terminal shell to sh, it gives the same error.

However, when I execute screen command as sudo, then the command succeeds.

How do I resolve it for the normal user?

Best Answer

Have a look in your shell initialisation scripts for bash, or the screen config file, and see if there's anywhere false is being used with the explicit path /bin/false.

On macOS, the false utility is located in /usr/bin, not in /bin.

Failing that, see if your login shell for some odd reason is set to /bin/false, either by inspecting /etc/passwd or looking at the "Advanced Options" in the "User & Groups" section of the System Preferences (you get these by right-clicking on your user in the list of user accounts, and you may change the shell here too). Someone may have unthinkingly followed a tutorial/HOWTO which sets up a user with /bin/false as their default shell.

When you run screen with sudo you use root's shell/screen init files. This is why that works.

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Bash – OSX bash script to execute once on Terminal.app open

Here's how I just did it:

I added this to .bash_profile

# Only do this in the first terminal opened
termsOpen=$(who | grep 'ttys' | wc -l)

if (( $termsOpen < 2 )); then
    echo "This is echoed in the first tty opened only"
fi

So, upon launching the terminal the first time, I get this output:

Last login: Mon Sep 26 08:30:42 on ttys001
This is echoed in the first tty opened only

When I open another terminal (and thus have two terminal windows open at the same time) I get this output:

Last login: Mon Sep 26 08:33:43 on ttys000

How it works:
Every time a new terminal window is opened .bash_profile is sourced. This command

who | grep 'ttys' | wc -l

simply counts the number of terminal windows that are open. If they are lower than 2 (in other words; there is only one terminal window active), then echo This is echoed in the first tty opened only

Version info:

OS X Version: 10.11.5

bash --version
GNU bash, version 3.2.57(1)-release (x86_64-apple-darwin15)

Best Answer

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Bash – OSX bash script to execute once on Terminal.app open

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