all commands after pipe - return command not found

timpie · 2025-02-13 13:51:46

Hello there,

I feel kinda strange, after 20 years of unix/linux experience i finally cannot grasp this problem and need to
post a newbies question :-) Oh well, we can always learn smething new
Running latest Arch Linux, bash, and everytime i run a command piping the output to another command
results in command not found ..
What is happening?

tim@jarabi:~$ cat /etc/passwd | grep tim
bash: grep: command not found
tim@jarabi:~$ which grep
/usr/bin/grep
tim@jarabi:~$ sudo dmesg -T | less
bash: less: command not found
tim@jarabi:~$ which more
/usr/bin/less
tim@jarabi:~$ sudo lsblk | more
bash: more: command not found
tim@jarabi:~$ which more
/usr/bin/more

mithrial · 2025-02-13 14:18:28

There is a weird whitespace after the pipe symbol which resolves the command afterwards to

␣grep

Can you test another keyboard?

timpie · 2025-02-16 11:27:10

mithrial wrote:

There is a weird whitespace after the pipe symbol which resolves the command afterwards to
␣grep
Can you test another keyboard?

Did that, Same problem

seth · 2025-02-16 15:36:24

What happens if you use the absolute path:

ls -R ~/videos | /usr/bin/grep porn # and inb4 anyone complains to not grep ls, I haven't made a porn reference in like a month, so shut up

loqs · 2025-02-16 15:56:57

As a work around you can remove the spaces and still use pipe in many cases such as:

$ cat /etc/passwd|grep tim
# dmesg -T|less

seth · 2025-02-16 16:08:35

I don't even see that "weird whitespace" and copypasting the post into hexdump -C just shows 0x20 either.

Trilby · 2025-02-16 19:14:47

The space is in the error message from bash. The OP gave an *attempt* at diagnostics with "which more", but whiches should be burned at the stake. A relevant diagnostic would be "type more" - I'd wager this will show that it is an alias. And I'd further wager that the OP has a set of alias's that add whitespace for common commands (probably something to do with using with sudo, but I've not used that tool in a long time). And finally I'd wager they copy-pasta'd these aliases from a website into a shell config file.

seth · 2025-02-16 21:02:36

There's indeed a second 0x20, but

$ alias grep=' grep'
$ which grep
/usr/bin/grep # so which is useless
$ type -a grep
grep ist ein Alias von » grep«.
grep ist /usr/bin/grep
grep ist /sbin/grep
grep ist /usr/sbin/grep
# but
$ echo foo | grep foo
foo # bash seems unimpressed

Because of the pipe my money would have been on the subshell screwing $PATH - we'll see.

timpie · 2025-02-19 14:48:23

It seems by selecting another keyboard layout it was solved from Belgian (alt) to Belgian ...

seth · 2025-02-19 15:20:13

That does not seem overly likely - your OP has that stray blank, but the bar is normal.
What display server and desktop environment is this?
What does "xev -event keyboard" print for the bogus(?) layout when entering "a|b"?

Arch Linux

#1 2025-02-13 13:51:46

all commands after pipe - return command not found

#2 2025-02-13 14:18:28

Re: all commands after pipe - return command not found

#3 2025-02-16 11:27:10

Re: all commands after pipe - return command not found

#4 2025-02-16 15:36:24

Re: all commands after pipe - return command not found

#5 2025-02-16 15:56:57

Re: all commands after pipe - return command not found

#6 2025-02-16 16:08:35

Re: all commands after pipe - return command not found

#7 2025-02-16 19:14:47

Re: all commands after pipe - return command not found

#8 2025-02-16 21:02:36

Re: all commands after pipe - return command not found

#9 2025-02-19 14:48:23

Re: all commands after pipe - return command not found

#10 2025-02-19 15:20:13

Re: all commands after pipe - return command not found

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