Why does sh not find files in my path that do exist?

Question

When I type this in sh it outputs :

$ $PATH
sh: 12: /bin:/usr/bin: not found

But, I do have a /usr/bin folder, and it's fuuuuull of stuff.

Same thing with zsh:

▶ $PATH
zsh: no such file or directory: /bin:/usr/bin

What the hell ? How do I fix this ?

Solution

PATH is an environmental variable in Linux and other Unix-like operating systems that tells the shell which directories to search for executable files (i.e., ready-to-run programs) in response to commands issued by a user.

To see the value of PATH variable, do it as echo $PATH. In your case, sh will look for executable in /bin and /usr/bin directory.

Also, you can use your sh commands as /bin/command if the executable of command is in the /bin directory. For example, instead of using ls you can use /bin/ls since writing ls runs the executable ls present in /bin. If the ls is not there in /bin, then it will look in /usr/bin. If ls is still not found in both the directory, then it will complain.

Trying to use $PATH or /bin:/usr/bin: directly, sh thinks that it is supposed to run bin executable located in the directory /bin:/usr/. This is the reason, it give directory or file not found or not found error.

For detailed info on PATH.

Comments

[Admin]

What command are you trying to run? Are you trying to find a command that is in your path?

[Admin]

@DavidPostill I thinks he is directly writing $PATH and executing it.

[Admin]

@RakholiyaJenish Yes, that is clear. But why is he doing that? What's he really tryng to do?

[Admin]

I think you are trying to run echo $PATH?

[dv4RqQUh]

So, when I run this : ▶ echo $PATH /usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin‌​:/usr/games:/usr/loc‌​al/games:/media/HDD/‌​Code/android-sdk-lin‌​ux/plateform-tools:/‌​media/HDD/Code/andro‌​id-sdk-linux/tools They are no more errors, and none in sh

[Rakholiya Jenish]

@N07070 Thats because, PATH is an environmental variable, which you are printing using $PATH. Hence, there won't be any error.