Fix Mac OS X bash

Question

When I start my Terminal I get this error. I have no clue how to fix that and where it comes from.

Last login: Fri Nov 30 21:46:06 on ttys000
-bash: export: `/usr/local/bin': not a valid identifier

Answer 1

Most likely one of the 'export' command in your .bashrc or .bash_profile is mis-configured.

Open up your favorite text editor and view the file(s) in your home directory called .bashrc and .bash_profile.

Look for any lines that begin with

export

one of the lines should be

export PATH='/usr/local/bin'

there might be spaces between PATH and the first '

export PATH = '/usr/local/bin'  #<----WRONG remove spaces

if not, copy the contents here and let's have a look.

An alternative if you can't find it is to grep through your home dir or /etc:

grep -l -E '/usr/local/bin' .*

make sure you use single quotes to escape the forward slash. then look at the files it lists for the mis-typed export.

Answer 2

OSX has used the path locations in a few files over the 10.6/7/8:

~/.profile     #local user
/etc/profile   #system wide defaults for ^
/etc/paths     #<---This is probably the one you want to check in.

Check all of those for the path's, as @choroba said above the $ is only for the end of the line, so similar to: export PATH=/opt/local/bin:/usr/sbin:$PATH