linux - execl: couldn't exec `/bin/sh'

07
2014-07
  • Jeroen

    I accidentally moved the whole bin, boot, dev and etc directory. After moving everything back I get the following error email from various cron jobs:

    execl: couldn't exec `/bin/sh'
    execl: No such file or directory

    Command used to move the directories:

    mv /* /some-folder

    ls -l /bin/sh
    lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 4 Jul 22 2013 /bin/sh -> bash

    ls -l /bin/bash
    -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 938832 Jul 18 2013 /bin/bash

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    linux - Binary in /usr/local/bin
  • Questioner

    I look to see where the command is located:

    xxx:~/mono/mono-2.6.7$ which mono
/usr/local/bin/mono

    If I execute it directly, no problem:

    xxx:~/mono/mono-2.6.7$ /usr/local/bin/mono -V
Mono JIT compiler version 2.6.7 (tarball Mon Aug  2 16:01:50 UTC 2010)
Copyright (C) 2002-2010 Novell, Inc and Contributors. www.mono-project.com
....

    But if I execute the command without the path it cannot find it:

    xxx:~/mono/mono-2.6.7$ mono
bash: /usr/bin/mono: No such file or directory

    There is no mono file in /usr/bin:

    xxx:~/mono/mono-2.6.7$ ls -l /usr/bin/mono
ls: cannot access /usr/bin/mono: No such file or directory

    Here is my path:

    xxx:~/mono/mono-2.6.7$ echo $PATH
/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games

    Doesn't it search each directory separated by the colons? So shouldn't it find mono in /usr/local/bin ?

    If I log in as root, it works. I can execute mono on the command line and it finds it. The permissions are:

    xxx:~/mono/mono-2.6.7$ ls -l /usr/local/bin/mono
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 8452592 2010-08-02 16:23 /usr/local/bin/mono

    Is the user I am using not part of the right group?


    • Related Answers
  • Gilles

    Bash keeps a cache of command locations in memory, so that it doesn't have to do the whole PATH exploration each time you start a command. In your original bash session, bash had previously memorized that mono was /usr/bin/mono. Then you removed /usr/bin/mono and added /usr/local/bin/mono, but your running bash still had the old location in its cache.

    You can manipulate the command location cache with the hash builtin. In particular hash -r clears the cache.

    which is an external command, so it doesn't use bash's cache and performs a PATH lookup every time. You could also have used type, which is a builtin and therefore does use the lookup cache.

  • Janne Pikkarainen

    Maybe you have an alias defined for mono? Check out that the following files in your home directory: .bashrc, .profile, .login or *.bash_profile*

    ... does not contain something like this

     alias mono="/usr/bin/mono"

    This can also be located in /etc/bashrc or /etc/profile.

    Command alias shows all currently defined aliases.

  • Seasoned Advice (cooking)

    I logged out, and then logged in again and it worked. I must have been doing something stupid. But, it works!