source command not found in sh shell

Question

I have a script that uses sh shell. I get an error in the line that uses the source command. It seems source is not included in my sh shell.

If I explicitly try to run source from shell I get:

sh: 1: source: not found

Should I somehow install "source"? Do I have a wrong version of sh?

One could reasonably argue that a shell which supports `source` is a "wrong version". — William Pursell, Dec 04 '12 at 12:08
Also, the error message `source: not found` means that the `source` command was evaluated properly, but the file it should have read does not exist. — Simon Richter, Jan 07 '14 at 06:43
It's not possible to "install" `source` *because* it is a feature of the shell. It cannot be implemented as an external command. — Christopher Schultz, Mar 30 '18 at 17:00

choroba · Accepted Answer · 2018-09-02T20:51:46.400

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/bin/sh is usually some other shell trying to mimic The Shell. Many distributions use /bin/bash for sh, it supports source. On Ubuntu, though, /bin/dash is used which does not support source. Most shells use . instead of source. If you cannot edit the script, try to change the shell which runs it.

edited Sep 02 '18 at 20:51

answered Dec 04 '12 at 12:26

choroba

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Thanks! Replacing /bin/sh with /bin/bash did work on Ubuntu! I'm curious why though, does it mean on Ubuntu bash is sh? – Milad Dec 04 '12 at 12:51
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@Milad: On recent Ubuntus, `/bin/sh` calls `/bin/dash`. Traditionally, `/bin/sh` called `/bin/bash` is sh-compatibility mode. – choroba Dec 04 '12 at 13:03
@Milad I think it does not work on ubuntu 14.04. What is your OS version? – Reza Ameri Dec 29 '14 at 19:32
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Maybe help known - if you have cascade scripts then rename all "sh -> bash". Thank you. :-) – BGBRUNO May 12 '16 at 00:48
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It wasn't immediately intuitive to me how to fix this issue unfortunately but it set me on the right path. I had to add `SHELL := /bin/bash` to the top of my Makefile. – fIwJlxSzApHEZIl Jun 11 '19 at 15:42

score 188 · Answer 2 · edited Aug 13 '21 at 17:53

188

In Bourne shell(sh), use the . command to source a file

. filename

In certain OS's/environments (Mac OS, Travis-CI, Ubuntu, at least) this must be:

. ./filename

(Credit to Adrien Joly's comment below)

edited Aug 13 '21 at 17:53

Hawkeye Parker

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answered Dec 04 '12 at 12:03

Guru

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I am not really allowed to change the script, it runs fine on a redhat server. But on that server, source seems to be included in sh – Milad Dec 04 '12 at 12:17
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If it has `source` it is not strictly `sh`. – tripleee Jan 07 '14 at 07:33
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I had this type of problem on Jenkins (trying to source a file stored as "secret file") and sourcing by "." command was the solution. – Jan Vlcinsky Jun 09 '15 at 21:25
This should be the top answer as it will work with sh, dash, and bash. – akhan Mar 03 '17 at 17:13
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For compatibility with Mac OS (dev environment) and Travis-CI (testing environment), I had to use `. ./filename`. Otherwise, I would get a `sh: 1: .: filename: not found` error when running tests on Travis-CI. – Adrien Joly Aug 18 '17 at 12:27
@AdrienJoly- I had the same issue too. Any idea _why_ that happens? – CodingInCircles Nov 21 '18 at 20:52
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Thank you that worked on ubuntu 20.04. While I had to run shell script in npm command – Faizi Sep 24 '20 at 06:31
Thanks!! perfectly worked for ubuntu docker – hitesh bedre Feb 05 '22 at 06:44

score 63 · Answer 3 · edited Jan 07 '14 at 06:37

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$ls -l `which sh`
/bin/sh -> dash

$sudo dpkg-reconfigure dash #Select "no" when you're asked
[...]

$ls -l `which sh`
/bin/sh -> bash

Then it will be OK

edited Jan 07 '14 at 06:37

gturri

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answered Jan 07 '14 at 06:16

shlsy

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Nice! I am running RHEL and Ubuntu servers and I always have small issues such as this one with Ubuntu. I really like RHEL and RHEL like linux. – radtek Mar 14 '14 at 19:05
The accepted answer doesn't work on Ubuntu 14, this one does! – rohithpr Oct 20 '15 at 08:50
Please add some further explanation to your answer - what does it do? `dpkg-reconfigure` might not be accessible for all users, especially on systems that are not based on Debian – Nico Haase May 15 '20 at 15:29
Fixed my `source: not found` errors with old telnet clients after debian upgrade, thanks. – bjoster May 16 '20 at 14:30

Travis Clarke · Answer 4 · 2017-07-13T19:46:14.670

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The source builtin is a bashism. Write this simply as . instead.

e.g.

. $FILE

# OR you may need to use a relative path (such as in an `npm` script):

. ./$FILE

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DashAsBinSh#source

edited Jul 13 '17 at 19:46

answered Jul 13 '17 at 19:38

Travis Clarke

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score 14 · Answer 5 · answered Jan 25 '16 at 09:06

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This problem happens because jenkins Execute Shell runs the script via its /bin/sh

Consequently, /bin/sh does not know "source"

You just need to add the below line at the top of your Execute Shell in jenkins

#!/bin/bash

answered Jan 25 '16 at 09:06

Mojtaba Yousefi

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The given question is not related to Jenkins after all – Nico Haase May 15 '20 at 15:28

score 10 · Answer 6 · answered Mar 27 '19 at 17:04

I faced this error while i was trying to call source command from #Jenkins execute shell.

source profile.txt or source profile.properties

Replacement for source command is to use,

. ./profile.txt or . ./profile.properties

Note: There is a space between the two dots(.)

score 9 · Answer 7 · answered Dec 04 '12 at 12:04

9

The source command is built into some shells. If you have a script, it should specify what shell to use on the first line, such as:

#!/bin/bash

answered Dec 04 '12 at 12:04

mah

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Well, it says #!/bin/sh and on another linux if I manually enter sh and ask "which source" it tells me: source: shell built-in command – Milad Dec 04 '12 at 12:16
oh so this is what this line was for. I always wondered. huge thanks! – CommonSenseCode Dec 01 '17 at 11:49

score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Oct 07 '15 at 18:28

I found in a gnu Makefile on Ubuntu, (where /bin/sh -> bash)

I needed to use the . command, as well as specify the target script with a ./ prefix (see example below)

source did not work in this instance, not sure why since it should be calling /bin/bash..

My SHELL environment variable is also set to /bin/bash

test:
    $(shell . ./my_script)

Note this sample does not include the tab character; had to format for stack exchange.

score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Aug 15 '17 at 08:42

0

source is a bash built-in command so to execute source command, you can log in as Root.

sudo -s source ./filename.sh

answered Aug 15 '17 at 08:42

swati jain

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This does not look like a valid solution. What if the user does not have sudo permissions? And the sourced stuff is afterwards only available as admin user, which will cause new trouble – Nico Haase May 15 '20 at 15:27

DInfo2019 · Answer 10 · 2020-06-01T04:34:13.683

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On Ubuntu, instead of using sh scriptname.sh to run the file, I've used . scriptname.sh and it worked! The first line of my file contains: #!/bin/bash

use this command to run the script

.name_of_script.sh

edited Jun 01 '20 at 04:34

answered Jan 11 '20 at 03:55

DInfo2019

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This has already been answered multiple times. Please provide more information if you add a new answer in such a case – Nico Haase May 15 '20 at 15:28

score -3 · Answer 11 · answered Nov 11 '16 at 22:10

-3

This may help you, I was getting this error because I was trying to reload my .profile with the command . .profile and it had a syntax error

answered Nov 11 '16 at 22:10

Kellen Stuart

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score -8 · Answer 12 · answered Oct 08 '14 at 08:25

-8

Bourne shell (sh) uses PATH to locate in source <file>. If the file you are trying to source is not in your path, you get the error 'file not found'.

Try:

source ./<filename>

answered Oct 08 '14 at 08:25

mosu

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The post says `sh: 1: source: not found` not `file not found` – Cristian Apr 28 '16 at 01:44

source command not found in sh shell

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