Bash · troubleshooting
Bash could not parse the script, so none of it ran, and the token it names is where parsing broke. A token of $'\r' means Windows line endings, ( means unquoted parentheses, and fi or done means a malformed block.
Reproduced on bash 5.2.21, . Where the text says “reproduced”, the behaviour was run on that version, not taken from documentation.
First published
New to this? Read what is actually happening first, then come back to the steps.
bash -n script.sh
Look for The token and line number
Reports the first syntax error without running anything.
A few questions to narrow the list. Every answer ends in a command that confirms or rules the cause out — this cannot see your cluster, so nothing here is a certainty until you have checked.
Narrow it down
0 answered · nothing is sent anywhere
Cause space
4 of 4 still possible
Nothing ruled out yet. Answer the question above and the branches your answer eliminates will strike through here.
In this order. The first command usually contains the whole answer.
Step 1
bash -n script.sh
Reports the first syntax error without running anything.
Look for The token and line number
Ordered by how often each one turns out to be the answer.
Edited or checked out on Windows; bash sees do\r, then\r, fi\r as unknown words.
Confirm
cat -v script.sh | head -3
^M at the end of lines
Fix
sed -i 's/\r$//' script.sh
Reproduced on Ubuntu 24.04: the same loop then ran.
An empty then or else, a missing ; or newline before then, do or fi, a missing done or esac.
Confirm
bash -n script.sh
The line and token; check the lines just above it
Fix
( ) < > | & ; are shell syntax. In text they must be quoted.
Confirm
bash -n script.sh
near unexpected token ( or )
Fix
A Python or other script run with bash or sh, or a missing shebang so the wrong interpreter runs it.
Confirm
head -1 script
A shebang for another language, or none at all
Fix
Skip this if you are mid-incident — the working part of the page is above. Worth reading afterwards, because understanding the mechanism is what stops the next one.
Bash reads the whole block before running it, and stops at the first word that cannot appear there. The word it quotes is the clue. The line it names is where it noticed, which can be after the real mistake.
Reproduced on 23 October 2026 with bash 5.2.21 on Ubuntu 24.04. Every case exited 2 and nothing in the file ran, because bash parses before it executes.
With Windows line endings, a plain for loop failed with syntax error near unexpected token $'do\r' (bash wraps the token in a backtick and an apostrophe), and cat -v showed each line ending in ^M. Removing the carriage returns with sed fixed it.
An empty else before fi failed on fi. A for loop missing the ; before do failed on the next command, echo. echo hello (world) failed on (. A Python file run with bash failed on its first string, "hi".
| Where | What you see |
|---|---|
| Windows line endings | script.sh: line 1: syntax error near unexpected token $'do\r' |
| Malformed if, for or case | script.sh: line 4: syntax error near unexpected token fi |
| Unquoted parentheses | script.sh: line 1: syntax error near unexpected token ( |
Behaviour described here is drawn from official documentation. Where a figure could not be confirmed on an official page it is attributed in the text rather than stated as canonical.
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