in mac always getting zsh: command not found: [closed]

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I am using the z Shell (zsh) instead of the default bash, and something wrong happen so that all commands that used to work are no longer recognized:

 ls
 zsh: command not found: ls
 open -e .zshrc
 zsh: correct 'open' to '_open' [nyae]? 

I don't know how to reset zsh or how to fix this. Here is the content of $PATH variable:

 echo $PATH
 /Users/Malloc/bin/Sencha/Cmd/3.1.2.342:/usr/local/bin/mate

I cannot open the .bash_profile file nor .zshrc file, seems the only solution is to reset the zsh. Any ideas?

EDIT:

I even tried to reset zsh as indicated in this thread, but always got command not found error:

 exec zsh
 zsh: command not found: zsh

So what's going on? Why all commands are lost?

For reset shell i just add this in .zshrc and working fine

eval "$(rbenv init -)"
export PATH="$PATH:$HOME/.rvm/bin"
export PATH="/opt/homebrew/bin:$PATH"
export PATH="/usr/local/opt/ruby/bin:/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/2.6.3p62/bin:$PATH"

• Ahmet Firat Keler: Shortcut: stackoverflow.com/questions/20106583/… (latest answer)
• balu k: run this command-> export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin

Answer 1

It's evident that you've managed to mess up your PATH variable. (Your current PATH doesn't contain any location where common utilities are located.)

Try:

PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:${PATH}
export PATH

Alternatively, for "resetting" zsh, specify the complete path to the shell:

exec /bin/zsh

or

exec /usr/bin/zsh

• Robert Walters: When I upgraded to Catalina I switched to the zsh shell and it messed up my paths to the point where I couldn't execute any third party apps I use. I just had to modify the .zshrc file and add "export PATH=<<location of my bins>>" and did the exec /bin/zsh and all was good.
• wahyu: @devnull @Robert Walters I try your answer, but I still get zsh command not found when I try to access anything, is there another way solve this
• supunbatagoda: add export PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin:${PATH} begging of ~/.zshrc file, after save file run source ~/.zshrc
• Felipe Sales: in Monterey this not works. Works with this command: export PATH="/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin". Hours and hours searching resolutions, I find. :)
• Pravin Bansal: zsh looks for .zprofile, so just create this file under your username and write your path or script you are trying to add -- basically create this by vim ~/.zprofile - under your user

Answer 2

On MacOS BigSur Click Terminal >> Preferences change the from /bin/zsh to /bin/bash Close and reopen the terminal

FROM Preference screen before

TO Preference screen after

You can now go back to .zshrc file to revert the last change you made

• AnonymousUser: Still get same issue except -bash
• Aliaksei Litsvin: This solution was exactly the one I needed. Thanks!
• Alejandro Sánchez: This worked in my Mac with M2 processor.
• Sriram Subramani: Great, its working for me. I have added wrong path in zshrc fil. Just removed the path and its working fine.

Answer 3

The best solution works for me for a permanent change path.

Open Finder -> go to folder /Users/<your user name here> /usr/local/bin

open .zshrc with TextEdit:

.zshrc is a hidden file so unhide it by command+shift+.

delete file content and type:

export PATH=~/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:$PATH

and save.

now zsh: command not found is gone.

• Aung Ko Man: if we open with TextEdit , mac will show following warning -> You don’t own the file ".zshrc" and don’t have permission to write to it. So i open .zshrc file with VSCode and save as sudo.

Answer 4

In your ~/.zsh config file include the path to your bash path file that contains your aliases. In my case it was including the line "source ~/.bash_profile" inside of ~/.zsh .

• Chase Roberts: I don't have a ~/.zsh file. Instead I had to put it in /etc/zshrc.
• Christopher Chalfant: Same but mines in file: ~/.zshrc

Answer 5

1. Use a good text editor like VS Code and open your .zshrc file (should be in your home directory. if you don't see it, be sure to right-click in the file folder when opening and choose option to 'show hidden files').

2. find where it states: export PATH=a-bunch-of-paths-separated-by-colons:

3. insert this at the end of the line, before the end-quote: :$HOME/.local/bin

And it should work for you.

You can test if this will work first by typing this in your terminal first: export PATH=$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH

If the error disappears after you type this into the terminal and your terminal functions normally, the above solution will work. If it doesn't, you'll have to find the folder where your reference error is located (the thing not found), and replace the PATH above with the PATH-TO-THAT-FOLDER.

• Alexandre: Aha, therein lies my mistake which led zsh to apparently "ignore" my PATH setting. From bash, I was used to prefixing directories inside my home folder with ~. So it turns out for zsh I should instead be using the $HOME variable, like in your example.

Answer 6

I solved my problem by reinstalling and/or add at the end of the ~/.zshrc file:

export PATH=/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin && clear

Oh My Zsh is installed by running one of the following commands in your terminal. You can install this via the command-line with either curl or wget.

curl:

sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/master/tools/install.sh)"

wget:

sh -c "$(wget https://raw.github.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/master/tools/install.sh -O -)"

Answer 7

Works on macOS 12 Monterey:

You can manually edit .zshrc file and revert the changes you made to PATH.

• Open TextEdit app.

• Go to folder: cmd + shift + g

• type: ~/

• See hidden files: cmd + shift + .

• select: .zshrc

• Revert changes, save file, and reopen terminal.

Answer 8

My solution:

Change back to bash:

source .bashrc

next:

echo $PATH

copy this:

/home/frank/.asdf/shims:/home/frank/....

back to the zsh:

source .zsh

open .zshrc:

and paste:

 export PATH=/home/frank/.asdf/shims:/home/frank/....

restart terminal

• RamRovi: In my case I had to reshim the asdf python install asdf reshim python and then it worked!

Answer 9

I fixed the issue by opening the terminal preference general tab and changing the Command (complete path) to /bin/bash to default and then editing the ~/.zshrc file.

enter image description here

export PATH="all your path inside the quotes"

...without any whitespace between the PATH=" and save the file.

enter image description here

After saving the file, change the /bin/zsh in your command or select default enter image description here

...and restart terminal and you should have your zsh shell working again!

Answer 10

For me just restarting my terminal seemed to fix the issue.

Answer 11

You can create a symlink in /usr/local/bin/

sudo ln -s $HOME/.composer/vendor/bin/homestead /usr/local/bin/homestead

• tasomaniac: Thanks a lot. I was having problems and this answer made me realize that I was not using $HOME and providing a relative path. Using full path with $HOME fixed my problem.
• David Bodow: +1 for many simple use cases: Adding a symlink is the way to go if you're just looking to add one executable. If you're looking to manage multiple executables in a new folder, then adding on to $PATH is better in that use case.

Answer 12

If you like me, you will have two terminals app, one is the default terminal with bash as the default shell and another iTerm 2 with zsh as its shell. To have both commands and zsh in iTerm 2 from bash, you need to do the following:

On iTerm 2, go to preferences (or command ,). Then go to the profile tab and go down to command. As you can see on the picture below, you need to select command option and paste path of zsh shell (to find the path, you can do which zsh).

enter image description here

At this point you will have the zsh as your default shell ONLY for iTerm 2 and you will have bash as the global default shell on default mac terminal app. Next, we are still missing the commands from bash in zsh. So to do this, you need to go on your bash (where you have your commands working) and get the PATH variable from env (use this command to do that: env | grep PATH).

Once you have that, go to your iTerm 2 and paste your path on "send text at start" option.

export PATH=/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin && clear

Just reopen iTerm 2 and we are done!

• Kamil B: The reason why we added the export to "Send text at start" is that for someone reason for me, the path always reset to what it was before whenever I reopened iTerm 2. So this is a nice way of fixing it.

Answer 13

To permanently fix it, you shall go to .zshrc file which is in your root directory. You can do:

1. cd to return to your root directory
2. code . to open directory from your VS Code to be able to easily edit your .zshrc file
3. click on .zshrc file from your VS Code
4. (1) If you have not made any changes to this file previously, It shall look as follows:

eval "$(rbenv init -)"

export PATH="$PATH:$HOME/.rvm/bin"

export PATH="/opt/homebrew/bin:$PATH"

OR

(2) If you did make any change, like adding some new PATH, then simply remove exactly that PATH. In my case, I used to have a homebrew path as well, so I deleted it. So, now it looks the same as in the step 4 (1).

Answer 14

For macOS, had to add source $HOME/.bash_profile to .zshrc file.

1. $ code ~/.zshrc (Opens .zshrc file on VSCode)
2. Add source $HOME/.bash_profile on top of the file and save it.
3. $ source ~/.zshrc to refresh .zshrc.

Don't forget to refresh.

• tripleee: This is wacky; .bash_profile should contain commands specific to Bash, and may have syntax which isn't compatible with Zsh (depending on how you have configured it).

Answer 15

In my case, it was by mistake the commented code was uncommented at the very first line.

# If you come from bash you might have to change your $PATH.

The hash was removed. After adding it back worked fine.

I just posted this here so someone might find this helpful. Because it's just start of the line and might be deleted by mistake like I had done. And seems there's no solution after trying several ways.

Answer 16

You need to create the .zprofile file and write into it

cd /
touch .zprofile
vim .zprofile
//Put Your Path

exit and Save and after run this code into shell

 source ~/.zshrc

Answer 17

I had a similiar problem when I installed ZSH on my ubuntu, I was getting the error zsh: command not found node when I tried to exec node or another command.

The solution for my was to open my ~/.zshrc file and write the next code on it:

export NVM_DIR="$HOME/.nvm"
[ -s "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" ] && \. "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" # This loads nvm
[ -s "$NVM_DIR/bash_completion" ] && \. "$NVM_DIR/bash_completion" # This loads nvm bash_completion

Then I closed and reopened my terminal and that's it.

Answer 18

Restarting the terminal also made the trick for me.

Answer 19

if you are using macOS, try to follow this step

if you write the code to export PATH in ~/.bash_profile then don't miss the Step 1

Step 1:

• make sure .bash_profile is loaded when your terminal is an open, check on your ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc (if you are using zsh), is there any code similar source ~/.bash_profile or not?. if not you can add manually with adding code source ~/.bash_profile in there
• Also make sure this code is on your .bash_profile > export PATH=/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin if it not in there, add that code into it

Sep 2:

• make sure the "Visual Studio Code.app" is in the right place > "/Applications" or "/Users/$(whoami)/Applications"
• remove the old installed vs-code PATH rm -rf /usr/local/bin/code
• open "Visual Studio Code.app"
• CMD+Shift+P and then select "Shell Command: Instal "code" command in PATH"
• restart your Mac and check by run this code -v, it should be work

Answer 20

In my case I was using the variable path in lowercase!

So in /etc/profile.d I was running a script that made use of the variable path. Because it was in lowercase I never thought it could mess up with the actual variable PATH. Be careful and do not use the variable path on your scripts.

Answer 21

As others have said, simply restarting the terminal after you've made changes should reset and changes you've made to your ~/.zshrc file. For instance after adding function to open visual studio:

function code { 
 if [[ $# = 0 ]]
 then
 open -a "Visual Studio Code"
 else
 local argPath="1ドル"
 [[ 1ドル = /* ]] && argPath="1ドル" || argPath="$PWD/${1#./}"
 open -a "Visual Studio Code" "$argPath"
 fi
}

I was able to use the keyword code to open the program from the command line.

Answer 22

A way to edit the .zshrc file without doing it through iTerm2 or native Terminal on macOS is to use a terminal in another application. For example, I used the terminal as part of VSCode and was able to find and edit the file.

Answer 23

Uninstall and reinstall zsh worked for me:

sudo yum remove zsh
sudo yum install -y zsh