# Linux and Perl, bad interpreter error **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 26, 2010, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/linux-and-perl-bad-interpreter-error/526513 "2010-01-26T14:51:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![SlickRoenick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e68b1a/32.png) [@SlickRoenick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlickRoenick)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2010, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/linux-and-perl-bad-interpreter-error/526513/1 "2010-01-26T14:51:29Z")
I had a perl script that scans an ugly ugly HL7 interface error log that was originally made for AIX 5.3. That server is gone and i copied the script to the new Red Hat server. This is what happened when i tried to run it: ```auto [root@StupidRedHat /]# errorscan : bad interpreter: No such file or directoryrl ``` So i used vi to change the # line from **#!/usr/bin/perl** to **#!/usr/local/bin/perl** (which perl). But i still get the exact same error message. However, if i run perl using errorscan as an argument it works: ```auto [root@StupidRedHat /]# cd /usr/bin [root@StupidRedHat bin]# perl errorscan Enter the path of the log file to be searched: ``` What else does Linux need to make this work the right way? ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2010, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/linux-and-perl-bad-interpreter-error/526513/2 "2010-01-26T15:01:54Z")
Type “which perl” into the command line. That will give you the address of the perl interperter executable that is being invoked when you type “perl errorscan” ETA: and looking at your post again, you already did this. Nvm ---
**Author:** ![SlickRoenick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e68b1a/32.png) [@SlickRoenick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlickRoenick)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2010, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/linux-and-perl-bad-interpreter-error/526513/3 "2010-01-26T15:04:02Z")
I did, that is how i knew to change the bang line > [@SlickRoenick](#): > > from **#!/usr/bin/perl** to **#!/usr/local/bin/perl** (which perl) ---
**Author:** ![arseNal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@arseNal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/arseNal)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2010, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/linux-and-perl-bad-interpreter-error/526513/4 "2010-01-26T15:05:59Z")
There might be some characters in the “errorscan” script that’s throwing things off, since you did copy it from a non-linux system. Do a vi -b errorscan and look for things you didn’t realize you were there, or in vi use the :%!xxd command to see it in hex. ---
**Author:** ![SlickRoenick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e68b1a/32.png) [@SlickRoenick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlickRoenick)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2010, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/linux-and-perl-bad-interpreter-error/526513/5 "2010-01-26T15:11:50Z")
> [@arseNal](#): > > There might be some characters in the “errorscan” script that’s throwing things off, since you did copy it from a non-linux system. Do a vi -b errorscan and look for things you didn’t realize you were there, or in vi use the :%!xxd command to see it in hex. I used the -b switch and every end of line had a ^M at the end of it. What is that from? I used ftp and set it to binary mode, should it have been ASCII? ---
**Author:** ![arseNal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@arseNal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/arseNal)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2010, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/linux-and-perl-bad-interpreter-error/526513/6 "2010-01-26T15:48:30Z")
> [@SlickRoenick](#): > > I used the -b switch and every end of line had a ^M at the end of it. What is that from? I used ftp and set it to binary mode, should it have been ASCII? Yeah. Just convert it using dos2unix. ```auto dos2unix errorscan > errorscan_new ./errorscan_new ``` ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2010, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/linux-and-perl-bad-interpreter-error/526513/7 "2010-01-26T15:56:47Z")
> [@SlickRoenick](#): > > I used the -b switch and every end of line had a ^M at the end of it. What is that from? I used ftp and set it to binary mode, should it have been ASCII? Yes, you should always use text-mode when transferring scripts for this reason. The ^M characters are carriage-returns (\r). DOS and Windows-based OSes use CRLF ( ) for their end-of-lines. Unix-type OSes use LF ( ) alone. The Linux kernel does not take kindly to carriage returns appearing on the #! line, and will interpret them as being part of the filename of the interpreter, which file obviously doesn’t exist. Perl itself is more lenient. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2010, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/linux-and-perl-bad-interpreter-error/526513/8 "2010-01-27T08:10:02Z")
There’s just one thing I don’t understand: Where did the linefeeds come from? I’m pretty sure AIX doesn’t use them any more than Linux does, and FTP won’t add them in binary mode. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2010, 8:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/linux-and-perl-bad-interpreter-error/526513/9 "2010-01-27T08:32:43Z")
maybe he used a Windows machine as intermediary? ---
**Author:** ![arseNal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@arseNal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/arseNal)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2010, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/linux-and-perl-bad-interpreter-error/526513/10 "2010-01-27T13:15:44Z")
Maybe they were there on the AIX box too, except AIX was able to handle them. I haven’t used AIX in forever tho, so who knows.