103

I have a simple script:

#!/bin/bash
for server in $(~/.ansible/ansible_hosts)
do
    ssh $server "hostname; readlink /opt/mydir/mylink;"
done

It works fine - the program returns the correct hostname and link - except that I get the following error on some but not all of the servers:

shell-init: error retrieving current directory: getcwd: cannot access parent directories: No such file or directory

All the directories exist. One of the most common suggestions has been to add a cd, a cd -, or a cd /. All that happens when that step is added is an additional:

chdir: error retrieving current directory: getcwd: cannot access parent directories: No such file or directory

I tried kickstarting the nfs daemon on the off chance that there was some confusion about my homedir and substituted /etc/init.d in case the problem was with /opt. No difference

This would simply be an annoyance except that when I try to use an ansible playbook instead of a simple ssh command it fails for that server.

Any insights would appreciated.

tripleee
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Todd Ellner
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    Does `~/.ansible/ansible_hosts` contain a list of servers? That's an odd way to read the values if so – arco444 Apr 01 '15 at 17:41
  • hope it's not a simple matter of permissions? – Kashyap Apr 01 '15 at 18:10
  • What happens when you manually log in on these machines? – that other guy Apr 01 '15 at 18:25
  • arco444 - Well, the .ansible/ansible_hosts was actually from someone else's directory which is where I first saw the problem. I tried it with a hosts.txt file in my home directory. Same behavior. Kashyap - I have permission to be in my home directory and the other directories I've tried this with. the shell initialization files are the same across the whole environment, and logging in manually doesn't raise these errors. – Todd Ellner Apr 01 '15 at 19:33
  • that other guy - perfectly normal, uneventful login. Further symptom: a "cd -" works fine from the shell, but when it's in the script I see a "cd: OLDPWD not set" error. – Todd Ellner Apr 01 '15 at 19:39
  • Sounds like there is something in your shell's startup file which does this, probably in an attempt to maintain a history of directories, or perhaps a prompt. These things should not be run in noninteractive mode, so I guess that's the real source of the error. – tripleee Apr 02 '15 at 08:37
  • `ssh server "$SHELL -x -c true"` might reveal something, although it is probably also quite verbose. – tripleee Apr 02 '15 at 08:38

8 Answers8

214

I believe the error is not related to the script at all. The issue is: the directory at which you are when you try to run the script does not exist anymore. for example you have two terminals, cd somedir/ at the first one then mv somedir/ somewhere_else/ at the second one, then try to run whatsoever in the first terminal - you'll receive this error message.

Please note you'll get this error even if you re-create directory with the same name because the new directory will have different inode index.

At least this was in my case.

Putnik
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    I agree with Putnik. Keep in mind that, even if your directory name appears to not change, you could be referencing a symbolic link that references an explicit path that has changed. This fouled me up as well. – Josh Lopez Apr 18 '17 at 16:01
  • Or you could be cd'ing around in some function. – mpersico Aug 13 '19 at 19:16
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    This was my case as well. I had pushed to the server again and apparently this overwrite my previous code and I got this error. I needed to exit the server and then SSH back into the server and the error went away. Thanks! – Brad Ahrens May 05 '20 at 09:27
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    It also happens (on mac) when you run a command from a folder which was deleted and then recreated but you didn't refresh your shell. – ccpizza Mar 01 '21 at 20:29
71

On Mac, just kill and relaunch the Terminal. It will get it right.

Medhi
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37

According to this answer, it happens when "you re-create directory" but already have a shell at this location, so we could simply run:

cd ~ && cd -

Notice: If you are using zsh and end up in this state, you might see a lock icon at the beginning of your prompt (this normally indicates that you don't have write permissions).

cglacet
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    what does `cd -` do? – alper Jul 20 '22 at 22:19
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    `cd -` goes back to the [previous ("old") directory](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9740298/what-does-cd-stand-for), for example if you run `cd x && cd y/z && cd -` you endup in directory `x`. – cglacet Jul 21 '22 at 14:27
6

opening a new tab on mac terminal worked for me.

Pratyaksh Sharma
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2

I had same error in my unittest in my tearDown method I was creating and removing test files for my test cases. Strangely enough even I had full paths for the directories I wanted to delete through for loop, I had to provide os.chdir(path_where_dirs_at) before to get rid of the error. Don't know if it's a good solution to it, but messages dissapeared.

Poli
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1

You are executing this as a script.. $(~/.ansible/ansible_hosts). The $() means that bash will attempt to execute that script and then output the results.

But it's not a script, right? It's a list of hosts!

Just add the word cat and it should work.

#!/bin/bash
for server in $(cat ~/.ansible/ansible_hosts)
do
    ssh $server "hostname; readlink /opt/mydir/mylink;"
done
fatal_error
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  • It could very well be that `ansible_hosts` is the name of a script that returns all hosts; otherwise, I think the script would not have worked in the first place since the result of executing a non-executable would be the empty string (the error being printed to `stderr`), and attempting to loop over that should not have executed the `ssh` command even once ... – AdminBee Jan 21 '21 at 10:54
0

I find a solution in a similar problem in Colab suddenly unable to navigate through directories

Without losing your variables in the Colab instance,

Use os library to change directory.

import os
path = "/content" # /content is pretty much the root. you can choose other path in your colab workspace
os.chdir(path)

This solution works and doesn't require restarting the runtime (and losing all data).

Hong Cheng
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0

maybe because of the first line "#!/bin/bash". try others, for example: #!/bin/ksh

python20
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