bash - Why do I sometimes get 'sh: $'\302\211 ... ': command not found' in xterm/sh?

07
2014-07

amn

Sometimes when I simply type a valid command like 'find ...', or anything really, I get back the following, which is completely unexpected and confusing (... is command name I type):

sh: $'\302\211...': command not found

There is some corruption going on I think. I don't use color in my prompt, I am using the Bash shell in POSIX mode as sh (chsh to /bin/sh and so on - $SHELL is sh).

What is going on and why does this keep happening? Anything I can debug? I think this is more of an xterm issue than sh, or at least a combination of the two.

Files, for context:

My /etc/profile, as distributed with Arch Linux x86-64:

# /etc/profile

#Set our umask
umask 022

# Set our default path
PATH="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin"
export PATH

# Load profiles from /etc/profile.d
if test -d /etc/profile.d/; then
        for profile in /etc/profile.d/*.sh; do
                test -r "$profile" && . "$profile"
        done
        unset profile
fi

# Source global bash config
if test "$PS1" && test "$BASH" && test -r /etc/bash.bashrc; then
        . /etc/bash.bashrc
fi

# Termcap is outdated, old, and crusty, kill it.
unset TERMCAP

# Man is much better than us at figuring this out
unset MANPATH

My /etc/shrc, which I created as a way to have sh parse some file on startup, when non-login shell. This is achieved using ENV variable set in /etc/environment with the line ENV=/etc/shrc:

PS1='\u@\H \w \$ '
alias ls='ls -F --color'
alias grep='grep -i --color'
[ -f ~/.shrc ] && . ~/.shrc

My ~/.profile, I am launching X when logging in through first virtual tty:

[[ -z $DISPLAY && $XDG_VTNR -eq 1 ]] && exec xinit -- -dpi 111

My ~/.xinitc, as you can see I am using the system as a Virtual Box guest:

xrdb -merge ~/.Xresources

VBoxClient-all

awesome &

exec xterm

And finally, my ~/.Xresources, no fancy stuff here I guess:

*faceName: Inconsolata
*faceSize: 10
xterm*VT100*translations: #override <Btn1Up>: select-end(PRIMARY, CLIPBOARD, CUT_BUFFER0)

xterm*colorBDMode: true
xterm*colorBD: #ff8000
xterm*cursorColor: S_red

Since ~/.profile references among other things /etc/bash.bashrc, here is its content:

#
# /etc/bash.bashrc
#

# If not running interactively, don't do anything
[[ $- != *i* ]] && return

PS1='[\u@\h \W]\$ '
PS2='> '
PS3='> '
PS4='+ '

case ${TERM} in
  xterm*|rxvt*|Eterm|aterm|kterm|gnome*)
    PROMPT_COMMAND=${PROMPT_COMMAND:+$PROMPT_COMMAND; }'printf "\033]0;%s@%s:%s\007" "${USER}" "${HOSTNAME%%.*}" "${PWD/#$HOME/~}"'

    ;;
  screen)
    PROMPT_COMMAND=${PROMPT_COMMAND:+$PROMPT_COMMAND; }'printf "\033_%s@%s:%s\033\\" "${USER}" "${HOSTNAME%%.*}" "${PWD/#$HOME/~}"'
    ;;
esac

[ -r /usr/share/bash-completion/bash_completion   ] && . /usr/share/bash-completion/bash_completion

I have no idea what that case statement does, by the way, it does look a bit suspicious though, but then again, who am I to know.

Answers

jlliagre

That's the ‰ character also used as "CHARACTER TABULATION WITH JUSTIFICATION".

I guess you are using a specific keyboard or editor that uses this unusual character instead of the regular tab, which is normally ignored in shell command lines, or having a locale mismatch between the shell and the terminal emulator.

Related Question

bash xterm : how to get command line before typing enter

bash xterm buffer

Michel Xavier

I try to define a custom behaviour of the backward-kill-word function in bash xterm. For that, I need to catch the command line before validate it. For instances, if I type sdcds/edfdD sdf/sdf without typing enter, I want by using a shortcut like esc + backspace to catch the line sdcds/edfdD sdf/sdf in a temporary variable to apply a sed after. I have already written the sed and the bind command but I cannot find anywhere how to catch the buffer command line.

Update from Answer

Ok thanks a lot, I think I'm not clear enough in my explanation. What I want to do is to create a function and the related bind key in the bash.rc to modify the text in the command line. Imagine, I want to define a function which removes the command line (before typing enter) till "/" for example and only till /, I could write in my .bash.rc :

function backward-delete-to-slash () { echo $BUFFER_COMMAND_LINE | sed  's:\(.*[/][/]*).*:\1:';}

bind -x '"\e\d": backward-delete-to-slash'

My problem is to catch the command line into a $BUFFER_COMMAND_LINE variable. If I had this variable, I could do for instance :

$: sdffs/dsfd dsfsdf/dfdsf (without typing enter)

esc + backspace

$: sdffs/dsfd dsfsdf/

So I hope to be more exhaustive.

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bash - Why do I sometimes get 'sh: $'\302\211 ... ': command not found' in xterm/sh?

Files, for context: