Terminal: "[Process Completed]" error

[John Albert]

The hardware is a late-2012 Mac Mini, i7.
The software is Yosemite build 14A388a.

Somehow, my Terminal app has gotten either corrupted or is missing
something essential.

When I open Terminal, all I see is [Process Completed], and it won't
respond to any other commands or text entries.

Is there any way to fix this, short of reinstalling the OS?
Perhaps by extracting components via Pacifist, and placing them manually?

Thanks...

[JF Mezei]

On 14-10-25 22:29, John Albert wrote:

> When I open Terminal, all I see is [Process Completed], and it won't
> respond to any other commands or text entries.

Go into preferences, make sure there are no default commands executed.

Does this happen if you open a new window as well ?

[Jolly Roger]

On 2014-10-26, Lewis <g.k...@gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> wrote:
> Okay, so one time? In band camp? John Albert <j.al...@snet.net> was all, like:

>> When I open Terminal, all I see is [Process Completed], and it won't
>> respond to any other commands or text entries.
>

> Preferences -> Profiles -> Shell
>
> Is there anything in "Run command"?
>
> Preferences -> General -> Shell opens with
>
> What is selected?
>
> Also check the new windows/tabs open with settings.

Could also be an issue with his shell / startup files.

--
E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my ravenous SPAM filter.
I often ignore posts from Google. Use a real news client instead.

JR

[John Albert]

On 10/26/14 2:07 AM, Lewis wrote:
> Preferences -> Profiles -> Shell
>
> Is there anything in "Run command"?

No.

> Preferences -> General -> Shell opens with
> What is selected?

I can set either to
a. Default
or
b. Command
… with the same results
Note: for the “Command (complete path):”, there is entered “/bin/bash”


The copy of Yosemite I'm using is installed on an external disk for
experimentation purposes only.

I believe that I somehow deleted an essential software component of
Terminal.

I suppose I -could- just wipe the disk I'm using and reinstall the whole
OS, BUT...

... If I knew what the components of Terminal are supposed to be, I
could then
- check them
- see if something is missing
- replace the missing component
and then
.... go from there.

But what -are- the software components that make up Terminal, and where
are they located?

[Jolly Roger]

On 2014-10-26, John Albert <j.al...@snet.net> wrote:
> On 10/26/14 2:07 AM, Lewis wrote:
>> Preferences -> Profiles -> Shell
>>
>> Is there anything in "Run command"?
>
> No.
>
>> Preferences -> General -> Shell opens with
>> What is selected?
>
> I can set either to
> a. Default
> or
> b. Command
> … with the same results
> Note: for the “Command (complete path):”, there is entered “/bin/bash”
>
>
> The copy of Yosemite I'm using is installed on an external disk for
> experimentation purposes only.
>
> I believe that I somehow deleted an essential software component of
> Terminal.

Doubt it. Sounds more like something is wrong with your shell startup
files. Which shell is Terminal set to use in Preferences > General?

If it's bash (the default), then I would take a look in your home
directory for these files:

.bash_profile
.bashrc

Note that because these file names start with a period, they will not
appear in Finder windows. So you'll need to look for them in a terminal
window (cd ~, then ls -al).

Feel free to post the contents here for examination.

To temporarily rule them out, you could simply rename those files to something like:

.bash_profile-moved
.bashrc-moved

Then open a new terminal window and see if the problem remains. If so,
those startup files weren't the cause.

[JF Mezei]

In your System Preferences Sharing, enable remote access. I believe it
enables SSH access into your machine.

From another Mac, ssh (or try telnet, simpler) into your deffective Mac.
You will gain access to command line and can then play with the files
properly.

Another option is to boot from recovery partition and use the terminal
there to cd to your Volumes/systemdisk/users/you and then check you .
startup files ( ls -a gets you those files).

[Király]

John Albert <j.al...@snet.net> wrote:
> I suppose I -could- just wipe the disk I'm using and reinstall the whole
> OS, BUT...

Don't do that. That's like renovating your entire kitchen just to fix a
leaky faucet.

Do some more troubleshooting. Log in to a different user account. Does
Terminal have the same problem there?

> But what -are- the software components that make up Terminal, and where
> are they located?

I highly doubt you have a problem with Terminal itself (what I
recommended above will determine that.) More likely you have a
configuration problem.

--
K.

Lang may your lum reek.

[David Ritz]

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On Sunday, 26 October 2014 22:00 -0000,
in article <m2jqt7$ald$1...@dont-email.me>,

John, have you also considered changing your default shell, from bash,
to one of the others available, for the purpose of trouble shooting?

$ ls -alF /bin/*sh
-r-xr-xr-x 1 root wheel 628736 Sep 26 21:03 /bin/bash*
-rwxr-xr-x 2 root wheel 370096 Sep 9 17:40 /bin/csh*
-r-xr-xr-x 1 root wheel 1394560 Sep 9 18:59 /bin/ksh*
-r-xr-xr-x 1 root wheel 628800 Sep 26 21:03 /bin/sh*
-rwxr-xr-x 2 root wheel 370096 Sep 9 17:40 /bin/tcsh*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 551232 Sep 9 18:19 /bin/zsh*

Do note that sh and bash are more or less interchangeable.

$ sh --version
GNU bash, version 3.2.53(1)-release (x86_64-apple-darwin14)
Copyright (C) 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

$ bash --version
GNU bash, version 3.2.53(1)-release (x86_64-apple-darwin14)
Copyright (C) 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

Have you considered installing an alternate terminal emulator, such as
iTerm or iTerm 2, depending on the OS version and platform?

<http://iterm.sourceforge.net/>
<https://iterm2.com/downloads.html>

- --
David Ritz <dr...@mindspring.com>
Be kind to animals; kiss a shark.

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[John Albert]

On 10/25/14 10:29 PM, John Albert wrote:
> The hardware is a late-2012 Mac Mini, i7.
> The software is Yosemite build 14A388a.
>
> Somehow, my Terminal app has gotten either corrupted or is missing
> something essential.
>
> When I open Terminal, all I see is [Process Completed], and it won't
> respond to any other commands or text entries.

I finally gave up and used the "brute force" method to fix things.

I reinstalled the OS.

Terminal is now back and working properly...

[Alan Baker]

And for those who may not know, you can change the shell from the Users
& Groups preference pane.

Unlock it, then right click on the user's name in the list on the left
and select "Advanced Options..."

You don't want to play with much in there, but you can choose which
shell to use with safety.