zsh: When running source I get zshrc:116: unmatched

Question

So today I wanted to add some extra alias to zsh.

• I did the usual

  nano ~/.zshrc
  

  and added my alias

  ex:

  alias desktop="cd desktop"
  

  (I've doubled checked that all variables for typos)

  Ctrl+O to save and Ctrl+X to exit.

• After getting out I run:

  source ~/.zshrc
  

  And get the following error:

  /Users/fridavbg/.zshrc:116: unmatched "
  

• When running I get:

  echo $SHELL
  /bin/zsh
  

Any kind soul out there that could help me out or give me some resource that might help me figure out how to fix this?

It feels like this is something simple, but I'm a little scared to mess my path up completely.

Answer 1

Your error message is not unmatched, it is unmatched ", as in there is an unmatched quote character, ".

The part /Users/fridavbg/.zshrc:116 exlains that this error was detected in file /Users/fridavbg/.zshrc on line 116.

So you should look at that file around the indicated line for unmatched quotes. Note that sometimes the indicated line is not the line where there error is. If you don't find an error on the indicated line, it may be before that line, or sometimes after that line.

Example:

command1 "missing quote at the end
command2 ""

Here the quote started on the first line continues to the first quote character on the second line, and the quote starting with the second quote character is not terminated.

Answer 2

Another wild guess: instead of an ASCII double quote (") one of them is inadvertently a Unicode curly “double” quote.

Some editors, in a misguided attempt to be helpful, insert/convert these without telling you.