terminal cant do ls or cd

Question

Can anybody explain what is wrong with my terminal:

 
$ echo $PATH
=/usr/local/bin
$ ls
-bash: ls: command not found
$ cd
-bash: find: command not found

Why won't these commands work? Help? Anyone?

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 05 '13 at 23:51

4

I'm guessing your .bash_profile or .bashrc has a line that looks like

export PATH=/usr/local/bin

This is overwriting all the existing stuff that needs to be in your $PATH. You need to change this line to look like

export PATH=/usr/local/bin:$PATH

answered Mar 05 '13 at 23:51

Lily Ballard

how do i do this from a non functional terminal? where is the .bash_profile or .bashrc file located? – cantdutchthis Mar 05 '13 at 23:54
@VincentWarmerdam: What command-line editor do you like to use? You can always use the full path to commands, e.g. `/usr/bin/nano ~/.bash_profile`. And these files live in your home dir. – Lily Ballard Mar 06 '13 at 00:01

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 05 '13 at 23:49

1

"ls" lives in "/bin" and "find" lives in "/usr/bin". You need to add these to your $PATH in your bash_profile or .bashrc.

answered Mar 05 '13 at 23:49

how do i do this from a non functional terminal? where are the bash_profile or bashrc files located? – cantdutchthis Mar 05 '13 at 23:54
type in "`cd ~`" to get to your home directory in terminal.app and then type in "`open .bashrc`" and "`open .bash_profile`" and that should open the files into TextEdit. – Michael Dautermann Mar 05 '13 at 23:57
cant use cd ... ``` Vincents-MacBook-Pro:~ vincentwarmerdam$ cd ~ -bash: find: command not found ``` – cantdutchthis Mar 06 '13 at 00:20

2 Answers2