Bash prompt lost and now shows error in PuTTY

Question

The terminal on my VPS originally looked like this in PuTTY:

[root@user ~]#

Then now it looks like this:

-bash-4.1#

This is the error that now shows up:

-bash: /root/.bash_profile: line 6: syntax error near unexpected token `fi'
-bash: /root/.bash_profile: line 6: `fi'

I don’t know what happened to cause this.

How do I get back to expected [root@user ~]#?

The /root/.bash_profile looks like this inside:

Answer 1

What caused the problem versus how to solve it are two different things. What I do know this these are the contents of a fairly standard Bash .bash_profile file; via RedHat 7:

# .bash_profile

# Get the aliases and functions
if [ -f ~/.bashrc ]; then
    . ~/.bashrc
fi

# User specific environment and startup programs

PATH=$PATH:$HOME/.local/bin:$HOME/bin

export PATH

And these are the contents of a fairly standard Bash .bashrc file; via RedHat 7:

# .bashrc

# Source global definitions
if [ -f /etc/bashrc ]; then
    . /etc/bashrc
fi

# Uncomment the following line if you don't like systemctl's auto-paging feature:
# export SYSTEMD_PAGER=

# User specific aliases and functions

Also, the contents of /etc/bashrc on RedHat 7 are as follows:

# /etc/bashrc

# System wide functions and aliases
# Environment stuff goes in /etc/profile

# It's NOT a good idea to change this file unless you know what you
# are doing. It's much better to create a custom.sh shell script in
# /etc/profile.d/ to make custom changes to your environment, as this
# will prevent the need for merging in future updates.

# are we an interactive shell?
if [ "$PS1" ]; then
  if [ -z "$PROMPT_COMMAND" ]; then
    case $TERM in
    xterm*|vte*)
      if [ -e /etc/sysconfig/bash-prompt-xterm ]; then
          PROMPT_COMMAND=/etc/sysconfig/bash-prompt-xterm
      elif [ "${VTE_VERSION:-0}" -ge 3405 ]; then
          PROMPT_COMMAND="__vte_prompt_command"
      else
          PROMPT_COMMAND='printf "\033]0;%s@%s:%s\007" "${USER}" "${HOSTNAME%%.*}" "${PWD/#$HOME/~}"'
      fi
      ;;
    screen*)
      if [ -e /etc/sysconfig/bash-prompt-screen ]; then
          PROMPT_COMMAND=/etc/sysconfig/bash-prompt-screen
      else
          PROMPT_COMMAND='printf "\033k%s@%s:%s\033\\" "${USER}" "${HOSTNAME%%.*}" "${PWD/#$HOME/~}"'
      fi
      ;;
    *)
      [ -e /etc/sysconfig/bash-prompt-default ] && PROMPT_COMMAND=/etc/sysconfig/bash-prompt-default
      ;;
    esac
  fi
  # Turn on parallel history
  shopt -s histappend
  history -a
  # Turn on checkwinsize
  shopt -s checkwinsize
  [ "$PS1" = "\\s-\\v\\\$ " ] && PS1="[\u@\h \W]\\$ "
  # You might want to have e.g. tty in prompt (e.g. more virtual machines)
  # and console windows
  # If you want to do so, just add e.g.
  # if [ "$PS1" ]; then
  #   PS1="[\u@\h:\l \W]\\$ "
  # fi
  # to your custom modification shell script in /etc/profile.d/ directory
fi

if ! shopt -q login_shell ; then # We're not a login shell
    # Need to redefine pathmunge, it get's undefined at the end of /etc/profile
    pathmunge () {
        case ":${PATH}:" in
            *:"$1":*)
                ;;
            *)
                if [ "$2" = "after" ] ; then
                    PATH=$PATH:$1
                else
                    PATH=$1:$PATH
                fi
        esac
    }

    # By default, we want umask to get set. This sets it for non-login shell.
    # Current threshold for system reserved uid/gids is 200
    # You could check uidgid reservation validity in
    # /usr/share/doc/setup-*/uidgid file
    if [ $UID -gt 199 ] && [ "`/usr/bin/id -gn`" = "`/usr/bin/id -un`" ]; then
       umask 002
    else
       umask 022
    fi

    SHELL=/bin/bash
    # Only display echos from profile.d scripts if we are no login shell
    # and interactive - otherwise just process them to set envvars
    for i in /etc/profile.d/*.sh; do
        if [ -r "$i" ]; then
            if [ "$PS1" ]; then
                . "$i"
            else
                . "$i" >/dev/null
            fi
        fi
    done

    unset i
    unset -f pathmunge
fi
# vim:ts=4:sw=4

Also note you should only edit files like this with a pure text editor. If you use a word processor or anything “fancier” than that, extra cruft and “gremlins” might be added to your file which would make the system choke on it.

Answer 2

Remove ~/.bash_profile and add content below to ~/.profile
it would work with other shells too.

# ~/.profile: executed by Bourne-compatible login shells.

if [ "$BASH" ]; then
  if [ -f ~/.bashrc ]; then
    . ~/.bashrc
  fi
fi

export PATH="${PATH}:${HOME}/bin"

Make sure to remember, how different shells processing start up files.
Here is diagram.

If you using any windows programs to edit content of script files or configuration files on Unix based computers, you should always keep in mind that line ending in those two operation system are different. On Linux, end of line - it is character 0x0A. Either use editors that supports switching between Unix and Windows line ending, such as Notepad++ or use ported to Windows vim editor.

Answer 3

As Alex mentioned, you may have inadvertently created an end of line problem. Assuming you have the utility in place try:

dos2unix /root/.bash_profile

This will convert the new line characters.