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This three line bash script that I wrote,

#! /bin/bash
cd /home/me/path/to/project
source ../../bin/activate

is located in the directory '~/scripts'. I wrote it in order to make it faster to move to a subdirectory for a project that has a long name. This project is written in Python so the second line

source ../../bin/activate

activates the virtualenv where the depencies are installed. However, when I run,

bash script.sh

in '~/scripts' nothing happens. I have run the code manually and verified that it works correctly. Additionally, today is the first time I have observed this behavior. Am I missing something obvious? Why doesn't this work? The only related action I have taken between the last time I ran the script and now was to copy the directory housing the entire project onto a backup hard drive. I am on Ubuntu 18.04.5 LTS

Ashamandarei
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  • The most crucial fragment (from one of the answers to the linked duplicate): "Use source if you want the script to change the environment in your currently running shell. use execute otherwise." If this doesn't solve the problem then leave me a comment, we will reopen the question. In this case please [edit] the question and state what should happen (what is `source ../../bin/activate` supposed to do?). Any error messages? – Kamil Maciorowski Aug 24 '21 at 04:12
  • That isn't the problem, commenting out the line with 'source' does not change what happens when I run 'bash script.sh'. Instead of changing the directory that I am in my working directory remains '~/scripts'. I have manually ran the script line by line and can verify it works correctly when I do this. It just does not work when I run 'bash script.sh', and I do not understand why. – Ashamandarei Aug 24 '21 at 04:21
  • "Instead of changing the directory ..." -- You need to run `. script.sh` (equivalent to `source script.sh`) *instead of* `bash script.sh`. This is sourcing vs executing the linked duplicate talks about. To have the question reopened you need to clearly state sourcing the script in question does not work. – Kamil Maciorowski Aug 24 '21 at 04:22
  • Ah, I see what you mean. Sorry, I understand what is going on now, thank you! – Ashamandarei Aug 24 '21 at 04:26
  • A hint: the shebang (`#! /bin/bash` in your case) is irrelevant when you source the script (`. script.sh`) or execute an interpreter explicitly with the script as an argument (`bash script.sh`). It's only relevant when you run the script *directly* (`./script.sh`). Running the script directly is not what you want here. I'm only pointing out the shebang is irrelevant in your use case. When you source a script, the shebang in it is only a comment. – Kamil Maciorowski Aug 24 '21 at 04:33

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