'\r': command not found - .bashrc / .bash_profile

Bash Problem Overview

I have windows, using Cygwin, trying to set JAVA_HOME permanently through my .bashrc file.

.bashrc:

export PATH="$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH"  
export JAVA_HOME=$JAVA_HOME:"/cygdrive/c/Program Files (x86)/Java/jdk1.7.0_05"

.bash_profile:

if [ -f ~/.bashrc ]; then
   source ~/.bashrc
fi

running cygwin:

-bash: $'\377\376if': command not found
-bash: $'then\r': command not found
: No such file or directorysu//.bashrc
-bash: /cygdrive/c/Users/jhsu//.bash_profile: line 3: syntax error near unexpected token `fi'
-bash: /cygdrive/c/Users/jhsu//.bash_profile: line 3: `fi'

I am not sure if I took the commands from a tutorial that was meant for another system or if I am missing a step. Or whitespace is causing my commands not to run properly.

I've looked at multiple similar questions but I haven't found one where the question has my error exactly.

My home path:

$ echo $HOME
/cygdrive/c/Users/jhsu
$ echo ~
/cygdrive/c/Users/jhsu/

So I believe the files should be placed in the correct spot.

Bash Solutions

Solution 1 - Bash

When all else fails in Cygwin...

Try running the dos2unix command on the file in question.

It might help when you see error messages like this:

-bash: '\r': command not found

Windows style newline characters can cause issues in Cygwin.

The dos2unix command modifies newline characters so they are Unix / Cygwin compatible.

CAUTION: the dos2unix command modifies files in place, so take precaution if necessary.

If you need to keep the original file, you should back it up first.

Note for Mac users: The dos2unix command does not exist on Mac OS X.

Check out this answer for a variety of solutions using different tools.

There is also a unix2dos command that does the reverse:

It modifies Unix newline characters so they're compatible with Windows tools.

If you open a file with Notepad and all the lines run together, try unix2dos filename.

Solution 2 - Bash

###For those who don't have dos2unix installed (and don't want to install it):

Remove trailing \r character that causes this error:

sed -i 's/\r$//' filename

Explanation:

Option -i is for in-place editing, we delete the trailing \r directly in the input file. Thus be careful to type the pattern correctly.

Solution 3 - Bash

For WINDOWS (shell) users with Notepad++ (checked with v6.8.3) you can correct the specific file using the option

Edit -> EOL conversion -> Unix/OSX format

And save your file again.

Edit: still works in v7.5.1 (Aug 29 2017)

Edit: Jan 3, 2022. As VSCode is mentioned several times. Go to settings in VSCode and type files.eol in the search field and set to \n (Unix format). Note that this changes this for your user or workspace for all files and it may not be what you want. YMMV.

Solution 4 - Bash

I am using cygwin and Windows7, the trick was NOT to put the set -o igncr into your .bashrc but put the whole SHELLOPTS into you environment variables under Windows. (So nothing with unix / cygwin...) I think it does not work from .bashrc because "the drops is already sucked" as we would say in german. ;-) So my SHELLOPTS looks like this

braceexpand:emacs:hashall:histexpand:history:igncr:interactive-comments:monitor

Solution 5 - Bash

SUBLIME TEXT

With sublime you just go to

> View - > Line Endings -> (select)Unix

Then save the file. Will fix this issue.

Easy as that!

Solution 6 - Bash

If you are using a recent Cygwin (e.g. 1.7), you can also start both your .bashrc and .bash_profile with the following line, on the first non commented line:

# ~/.bashrc: executed by bash(1) for non-login shells.
# see /usr/share/doc/bash/examples/startup-files (in the package bash-doc)
# for examples
(set -o igncr) 2>/dev/null && set -o igncr; # this comment is needed

This will force bash to ignore carriage return (\r) characters used in Windows line separators.

See http://cygwin.com/ml/cygwin-announce/2010-08/msg00015.html.

Solution 7 - Bash

try execution the following command

vim .bashrc
:set ff=unix
:wq!

Solution 8 - Bash

The error:

> '\r': command not found

is caused by shell not able to recognise Windows-like CRLF line endings (0d 0a) as it expects only LF (0a).

Git

If you using Git on Windows, make sure you selected 'Checkout as-is' during setup. Then make sure that you run: git config --global core.autocrlf false, so Git will not perform any conversions when checking out or committing text files.

`dos2unix`

If you're not using Git, you simply need to convert these affected files/scripts back into Unix-like line endings (LF), either by:

dos2unix ~/.bashrc

^{Note: The dos2unix command is part of dos2unix package.}

Ex/Vim editor + `tr`

If you've Vim installed, the following command should correct the files:

ex +'bufdo! %! tr -d \\r' -scxa ~/.bash*

^{Useful alias: alias dos2unix="ex +'bufdo! %! tr -d \\\\r' -scxa".}

`tr`

Here is the method by using tr:

cat ~/.bashrc | tr -d '\r' > ~/.bashrc.fixed && mv -v ~/.bashrc.fixed ~/.bashrc

or:

tr -d '\r' < filename > new_filename

^{Note: The \r is equivalent to \015.}

`sed`

You can try the following command:

sed -i'.bak' s/\r//g ~/.bash*

`recode`

The following aliases can be useful (which replaces dos2unix command):

alias unix2dos='recode lat1:ibmpc'
alias dos2unix='recode ibmpc:lat1'

^{Source: Free Unix Tools (ssh, bash, etc) under Windows.}

`perl`

The following perl command can convert the file from DOS into Unix format:

perl -p -i.bak -e 's/\015//g' ~/.bash*

^{Source: stripping the ^M.}

`tofrodos`

On Linux, like Ubuntu which doesn’t come standard with either dos2unix or unix2dos, you can install tofrodos package (sudo apt-get install tofrodos), and define the following aliases:

alias dos2unix=’fromdos’
alias unix2dos=’todos’

Then use in the same syntax as above.

Vagrant

If you're using Vagrant VM and this happens for provisioning script, try setting binary option to true:

# Shell provisioner, see: https://www.vagrantup.com/docs/provisioning/shell.html
config.vm.provision "shell" do |s|
  s.binary = true # Replace Windows line endings with Unix line endings.
  s.path = "script.sh"
end

See: <https://stackoverflow.com/q/28651275/55075>;.

Solution 9 - Bash

You can also add the option -o igncr to the bash call, e.g.

bash -x -o igncr script.sh

Solution 10 - Bash

As per this gist, the solution is to create a ~/.bash_profile (in HOME directory) that contains:

export SHELLOPTS
set -o igncr

Solution 11 - Bash

May be you used notepad++ for creating/updating this file.

EOL(Edit->EOL Conversion) Conversion by default is Windows.

Change EOL Conversion in Notepad++

Edit -> EOL Conversion -> Unix (LF)

Solution 12 - Bash

I had the same problem. Solution: I edit the file with pspad editor, and give it a unix format (Menu - Format -> UNIX)

I believe you can set this format to your file with many other editors

Solution 13 - Bash

For the Emacs users out there:

Open the file
M-x set-buffer-file-coding-system
Select "unix"

This will update the new characters in the file to be unix style. More info on "Newline Representation" in Emacs can be found here:

http://ergoemacs.org/emacs/emacs_line_ending_char.html

Note: The above steps could be made into an Emacs script if one preferred to execute this from the command line.

Solution 14 - Bash

Issue maybe occured because of the file/script created/downloaded from a windows machine. Please try converting into linux file format.

dos2unix ./script_name.sh

dos2unix ~/.bashrc

Solution 15 - Bash

If you have the vim package installed on your Cygwin install, you can use vim to fix this without find & replace. Start vim as follows: vim filename.sh (often it is aliased to vi also). Then, type :set fileformat=unix, then :wq (write & quit) to save your changes. (The : puts you in vim's edit mode.)

I recommend this over dos2unix since vim is probably more commonly installed.

However, it is probably a best practice to set your text editor to save files that you plan to use in a Unix/Linux environment to have a Unix text format. The answers given above for Notepad++ are a good example.

Additional note: If you are unsure what type a file is (DOS or Unix), you may use the file filename.sh. This can especially help in debugging more obscure issues (such as encoding issues when importing SQL dumps that come from Windows).

For other options on how to modify text file formatting, see [this IU knowledge base article][1]

More background information on Bash scripts and line endings is found on [this StackOverflow question][2].

[1]: https://kb.iu.edu/d/acux "IU Knowledge Base: How do I convert between Windows and Unix text files" [2]: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/39527571/are-shell-scripts-sensitive-to-encoding-and-line-endings

Solution 16 - Bash

In EditPlus you do this from the Document → File Format (CR/LF) → Change File Format... menu and then choose the Unix / Mac OS X radio button.

Solution 17 - Bash

1. Choice

EditorConfig — is my choice.

2. Relevance

This answer is relevant for March 2018. In the future, the data from this answer may be obsolete.

Author of this answer personally used EditorConfig at March 2018.

3. Limitations

You need to use one of supported IDE/editors.

4. Argumentation

Simply usage. I need set my .editorconfig file 1 time, where I create my project, → I can forget some platform-, style- and IDE-specific problems.
Cross-platform, cross-languages, cross-IDE, cross-editors.

5. Example

5.1. Simple

I install EditorConfig plugin for Sublime Text → my text editor. I edit files in Sublime Text.

For example, I have sashacrlf.sh file:

echo "Sasha" &
echo "Goddess!" &

I run this file in Cygwin:

$ bash sashacrlf.sh
Sasha
sashacrlf.sh: line 1: $'\r': command not found
Goddess!

I create a file .editorconfig in same project as sashacrlf.sh.

[*.sh]
end_of_line = lf

It means, that if you save any file with .sh extension in your project in your editor, EditorConfig set UNIX line endings for this file.

I save sashacrlf.sh in my text editor again. I run sashacrlf.sh again:

$ bash sashacrlf.sh
Sasha
Goddess!

I can't get unexpected output in console.

5.2. Multiple file extensions

For example, I want to have UNIX line endings in all files with extensions .sh, .bashrc and .bash_profile. I add these lines to my .editorconfig file:

[*.{sh,bashrc,bash_profile}]
end_of_line = lf

Now, if I save any file with .sh, .bashrc or .bash_profile extension, EditorConfig automatically set UNIX line ending for this file.

6. Additional links

EditorConfig official site.

Content Type	Original Author	Original Content on Stackoverflow
Question	Jasmine	View Question on Stackoverflow
Solution 1 - Bash	jahroy	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 2 - Bash	Michael P. Bazos	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 3 - Bash	Ray Oei	View Answer on Stackoverflow
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Solution 5 - Bash	Alvaro Joao	View Answer on Stackoverflow
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