How to reset Bash on Mac OSX, .bash_profile corrupted and bash no longer works

Posted by user1463172 on Super User See other posts from Super User or by user1463172
Published on 2012-11-02T09:27:59Z Indexed on 2012/11/02 11:04 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 970

Filed under:
|
|
|

I am on a MacBook Pro, running the latest version of Mountain Lion.

I really need some help, I have managed some how to damage my .bash_profile (I think) so that every time I open up the terminal I get the error listed below.

-bash: export: `/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/go/bin': not a valid identifier
-bash: export: `/Users/rob/Applications/sbt/bin:': not a valid identifier
env: bash: No such file or directory
env: bash: No such file or directory
env: bash: No such file or directory
env: bash: No such file or directory
env: bash: No such file or directory
-bash: tar: command not found
-bash: grep: command not found
-bash: cat: command not found
-bash: find: command not found

I am not sure what has happened, I have no sudo, cd or any normal commands. The only way I have been able to get to any of the main directories is through the go to folder command in finder and try to find the file to no avail.

To top it all off I think I created a file that might be causing the issue, I wanted to edit the .bash_profile so I typed

sudo nano ./bash_profile

This open a new file in nano which I think was then saved. After this I opened the real .bash_profile to add in the path for node.js.

If I can get to the .bash_profile I think I can get it back on track but I can't find it, should I reinstall bash? If so how would I do that on a mac, I tried using

brew install bash

to which I get

-bash: brew: command not found

I am really stuck if anyone can help I would be really appreciated.

Many thanks

© Super User or respective owner

Related posts about osx

Related posts about bash