Restoring ~/.bashrc without using bash commands

Question

I think I had a typo when I add a path to ~/.bashrc and after I source it, I cannot use bash commands anymore.

Now I want to restore a normal ~/.bashrc, however most of the discussion I found (e.g. How to fix a .bashrc that's been edited wrongly?) needs to use bash commands e.g. cp

clam@cuerei:~# cp /etc/skel/.bashrc ~
cp: /home/cltam/script/lib/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.17' not found (required by cp)

May I know how could I restore ~/.bashrc without using bash commands?

Thank you.

Answer 1

cp is not a bash command – it's an external program. This is why it fails; actual bash commands would be unaffected by library or path changes. So you want the opposite, i.e. using only bash commands.

You could delete the file's contents completely, using:

true > ~/.bashrc

Or overwrite with some other contents:

echo "" > ~/.bashrc

Or you could try to temporarily undo the bad changes within the live shell:

unset LD_LIBRARY_PATH LD_PRELOAD LD_AUDIT
export PATH=/bin:/usr/bin
cp /etc/skel/.bashrc ~

Or you could copy the file's contents, line by line, using just shell built-ins:

while IFS="" read -r line; do
    echo "$line";
done < /etc/skel/.bashrc > ~/.bashrc

Answer 2

Are you currently logged into the system? If so, you can switch to another shell, then edit the file

> chsh
> vi ~/.bashrc

Answer 3

You broke your library path which is used for dynamically linked programs. Those do not contain all the code needed to execute the program, but load some from shared libraries at start up time.

Some programs are compiled to avoid this issue (for instance for programs running as root or needed very early in the boot process). They are traditionally placed in /sbin and /usr/sbin. What exactly is there depends on what is installed.

On my Mac it does not appear that there is an editor available, but your system might have.

Answer 4

I have followed @Peter Cordes suggestion to undo my edit by: unset LD_LIBRARY_PATH.

Thank you very much!