How do I run .sh scripts?

Question

Whenever I open a .sh file, it opens it in gedit instead of the terminal. I can't find any option similar to Right Click → Open With → Other Application... → Terminal.

How do I open this file in the terminal?

Does that script aim to set up env variables for further use? — Rob, May 01 '11 at 10:47
You shouldn't use extensions on scripts. At some point in the future, you may find that a different language is more suitable to do the task your current script is doing. And then you have a problem. Do you keep the old name, with a completely misleading extension, or do you rename it, possibly having to edit alot of places where your script is used? — geirha, May 01 '11 at 14:07
You don't need the file extension. It's nice to have but is not needed. The OS doesn't look at the file extension. It looks at the data — ActionParsnip, May 04 '11 at 17:41
Meh, if you rewrite foo.sh in ruby, you can always use the .sh file to launch ruby foo.rb — glenn jackman, Jun 11 '13 at 01:24
@ActionParsnip I was under the impression that linux would open the file and look at the header to determine what type of file it was dealing with? — Kellen Stuart, Sep 26 '16 at 18:23

score 756 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 18 '15 at 07:53

756

Give execute permission to your script:

chmod +x /path/to/yourscript.sh

And to run your script:

/path/to/yourscript.sh

Since . refers to the current directory: if yourscript.sh is in the current directory, you can simplify this to:

./yourscript.sh

edited Jun 18 '15 at 07:53

Jeremy Kerr

27,199

answered May 01 '11 at 03:18

karthick87

81,947

19

+1 only answer to show adding execute permissions in a terminal only way. – Hailwood May 01 '11 at 03:24
114

If you do bash /path/to/yourscript.sh then you don't need chmod +x – Aleksandr Levchuk May 01 '11 at 04:51
6

Actually, you can use . /path/to/yourscript.sh if the script have to set up some environment variables. – Rob May 01 '11 at 10:46
2

Nobody mentions the traditional: ./path/to/yourscript.sh (without the space after .)? I find that one is the simplest and easiest to use... But anyways, here is my alternative that should do almost the same as ./ would, though I don't see why you wouldn't use ./: (FILENAME=~/rem4space.sh;SLL=$(cat $FILENAME|head -1|sed 's:^#!$.*$:\1:g');[ ! -z $SLL ] && exec $SLL $FILENAME;sh $FILENAME) ... edit FILENAME to your liking. Also note that sh will be used if there is no alternative. – MiJyn Jun 19 '13 at 03:50
It required using sudo bash on GitHub workspaces – Mayank Kumar Chaudhari Dec 22 '23 at 02:27

score 111 · Answer 2 · answered May 01 '11 at 03:02

111

You need to mark shell scripts as executable to run them from the file manager:

Right click on your .sh file and select Properties:
In the Permissions tab, check Allow executing file as program:
Close the Properties window and double-click the file. A dialog will pop up giving you the option to run the script in a terminal:

answered May 01 '11 at 03:02

Isaiah

59,344

12

This isn't working in Ubuntu 13.04. Keeps opening in gedit anyway, never asks me to execute. Edit: Nvm, imjustmatthew answers this. – mpen Jul 12 '13 at 16:27
Before using this we need to make the file permission for execute using chmod.
chmod +x filename.sh or chmod 755 filename.sh
– Arvind Rawat Mar 16 '17 at 15:11
I don't have popup! IDE is opened straight away, not a popup – Green Apr 04 '18 at 10:56
How come I can't find "run in terminal" anywhere on my interface? (Ubuntu 18.04) – Daniel Möller May 09 '18 at 22:08
Ok, so how do I get it to remember to automatically "Execute" (my options are a bit different than yours) so I don't have to select that every time I try to run it? I want to just double click and have it run. – Michael Jul 20 '18 at 01:06
3

@DanielMöller, here is the answer to your question. https://askubuntu.com/questions/38661/how-do-i-run-sh-files/1065846#1065846 – Akhilesh Dhar Dubey Aug 16 '18 at 10:19
If using Nautilus, or "Files" as it is currently, you must set the preferences for executable text files as described in this answer https://askubuntu.com/a/537318/159431 – iyrin Sep 20 '22 at 03:32

score 76 · Answer 3 · edited Jun 11 '13 at 01:06

76

Open a terminal and navigate to the folder where the .sh file is located. Then type:

sh <name of file>.sh

edited Jun 11 '13 at 01:06

edwin

3,799
20
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answered Dec 20 '12 at 07:43

italianfoot

869

2

the best way to open any application. Navigate to .sh directory then open it in command prompt. the use sh .sh if it requires permission use chmod +x /path/to/yourscript.sh or right click and change permission to all – Durgesh Kumar Mar 19 '19 at 09:23
This is my favored method of doing it. @DurgeshKumar nice tips. – wlwl2 Jan 06 '20 at 10:40
Tried to run a sh script on alpine. While other answers did not work, this did. – Vankog Oct 09 '20 at 11:32
how about $ sudo bash asdad.sh – Manoj Kumar Jan 07 '21 at 18:28

score 33 · Answer 4 · edited Aug 03 '19 at 15:17

Prerequisite

Before you can run the .sh file, you need to make it executable:

Right-click on the file
Select Properties
Select Permissions
Select Allow executing file as a program

Warning

Make sure you trust the source where you got the file from. It could be a virus.

The very simple way

Double-click on the file
Click run in terminal

This has problem. The terminal will close immediately and you will not be able to see the output.

The simple way

Open Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal
Drag and drop the .sh file into the terminal and press Enter

The way professionals do it

Open Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal
Find where the .sh file
- Use the ls and cd commands
- ls will list the files and folders in the current folder. Give it a try: type "ls" and press Enter.
- Once you see the folder that you want to go in to, run cd, followed by a space, followed by a folder name
- If you when into a folder that you did not want, run cd .. to go one level up
Run the .sh file
- Once you can see for example script1.sh with ls run this:
```
./script.sh
```

Why do it the complicated way?

The terminal has a rich set of powerful tools that are accessible by typing the commands. Professionals locate the .sh file by typing ls and cd. Once you are in the correct current folder you can run the script like this:

./script1.sh

or you can run and redirect the output to a file:

./script1.sh > out.txt

or you can filter the output for keywords (e.g. "apples") an then redirect to a file:

./script1.sh | grep apples > ./only-apples

There are thousands of things you can to to that file just by typing a few commands.

Another one, you can download a file from the Internet with one simple command:

wget www.google.com/images/logos/ps_logo2.png

And then open the file like this:

shotwell ps_logo2.png

Im not sure that The way professionals do it is correct, it's more a case of the simple way the advanced(for for control of output) way — Hailwood, May 01 '11 at 04:24
It's good to know I did it the way professionals do it on my first trial. I thought it was the basic user's way. — NelsonGon, Jun 11 '19 at 05:06

score 24 · Answer 5 · edited Jun 16 '15 at 11:23

24

On Ubuntu 13.04 executable files opened in Nautilus are now opened in gedit by default rather than prompting the user to execute them. To enable the classic behavior you need to adjust the preferences:

Nautilus → Edit menu → Preferences → Behaviour tab → Click the radio button near Ask each time.

edited Jun 16 '15 at 11:23

kos

35,891

answered Jun 10 '13 at 21:41

imjustmatthew

351
2
4

The person who asked the question is talking about Ubuntu 10.10 – edwin Jun 11 '13 at 00:48
2

Thank you!!! I don't know why they'd change this, couldn't figure out how to execute anything. – mpen Jul 12 '13 at 16:28
2

This is the right answer for latest ubuntus. – gaRex Apr 11 '15 at 11:44
How do you get to Nautilus in 15.10? – yaakov May 23 '16 at 17:54
3

As of Ubuntu 18.04, you can access the preferences by opening a directory and then clicking "Files -> Preferences" in the top bar. – tparker Nov 17 '18 at 20:04

score 11 · Answer 6 · answered Aug 16 '18 at 10:18

11

For Ubuntu 18.04, There is a little modification, as you don't get a pop-up dialog.

So what you need to do is:

Right click on Files, Select Preferences > Select Behavior Tab > Mark 'Ask what to do' option under Executable text file.

Now, When you double-click on any .sh file, you will get a popup, there you can select "run in terminal" option to run your .sh file.

answered Aug 16 '18 at 10:18

Akhilesh Dhar Dubey

211

2

bit weird as I don't have the "preferences" option in right click menu. I only have properties. – Nicholas Humphrey Sep 11 '20 at 11:53
For me this also made it ask for other completely unrelated extensions which is a real drag. Anyway to only make it ask this for things ending in a .sh extension. – Kvothe Dec 03 '20 at 16:45
+1, the same works also in 20.04 – userfuser Apr 27 '22 at 08:31

score 10 · Answer 7 · edited Sep 14 '17 at 15:25

Go to the directory where the .sh file is by using cd. In this example I have stored my sh file as ~/Desktop/shell_practice/test.sh

first do pwd to figure out where you are, and if it returns /home/username (where username is your real username), you can run

cd Desktop/shell/practice

If you seem to be somewhere else, you can use the absolute path

cd ~/Desktop/shell/practice

or

cd $HOME/Desktop/shell/practice

or even

cd /home/$USER/Desktop/shell/practice

these are all ways of describing the same place. Once you've made it to the location of your script, type

ls

If you can see the sh file in the output, you can use chmod to make it executable. In my case, remember, the filename is test.sh, so I would run

chmod u+x test.sh

Now that we are in the same directory as the script, we have to specify to the shell that we want to execute the file by giving its location ./ (the current directory followed by a path separator, to distinguish it from the filename). To run my file I would type:

./test.sh

If your script has been written correctly it will run without errors...

Here's a live example:

Wb, @RuD3B0y, i tried to keep the answers best for noobs, no high tech content, if you have some edits you are welcome. — TheExorcist, Apr 02 '18 at 17:58

score 7 · Answer 8 · edited Sep 14 '17 at 14:47

There are a few ways to do this.

Option 1

In the terminal, access the directory the Bash file is in using cd (change directory).

Ex. cd Downloads
Run bash <filename>.sh

This also works with .run files. There is an example of this usage at this webpage on updating Rhythmbox.

Option 2

In the terminal, navigate to the directory the bash file is in.
Run chmod +x <filename>.sh
In Nautilus, open the file.

score 6 · Answer 9 · edited Oct 24 '13 at 15:17

2 main steps.

in terminal, use gedit to write and save script with ".sh" extension to desktop. (but any text editor can be used)
open Nautilus and right click the script.sh file.
- under properties, check box "allow executing file.."
- in Nautilus menu, click file,then preferences,then behaviour
- check the "run executable text files when they are opened".

Now, when you double click the file on the desktop, it should execute. no need for . or ./

score 5 · Answer 10 · edited Jun 10 '17 at 15:49

5

Right-click the .sh file and make it executable.
Open a terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T).
Drag the .sh file into the terminal window and watch in awe.

edited Jun 10 '17 at 15:49

David Foerster

36,264
56
94
147

answered Jun 10 '17 at 14:09

1p_bunny

51

2

Welcome to Ask Ubuntu! I recommend to [edit] this answer to expand it with specific details about how to do the first step. (See also How do I write a good answer? for general advice about what sorts of answers are considered most valuable on AskUbuntu.) – David Foerster Jun 10 '17 at 15:49

score 4 · Answer 11 · answered Dec 11 '16 at 19:58

4

In Ubuntu 16.04 this is how to open it in Terminal:

Go to the File Manager > Edit > Preferences > Behavior for Executable Text Files and select Ask each time.

The problem is that it's by default set to View Executable Files when they are opened.

answered Dec 11 '16 at 19:58

Leniel Maccaferri

141

score 3 · Answer 12 · answered May 01 '11 at 07:14

If you place your shell script or other executable you create in /usr/local/bin it will be found and executed without having to provide a folder path in the command line or adding ./ to the name. For example I created the following simple 3 line bash script to display disk UUIDs:

#!/bin/bash
echo "* UUIDs must match in /etc/fstab and /boot/grub/menu.lst"
sudo blkid

I called the file uuid and placed it in /usr/local/bin. All I need enter on the command line is:

uuid

score 2 · Answer 13 · edited Sep 14 '17 at 14:35

The problem I have found on a few distributions is they have hidden the preferences option in Nautilus, but to fix it in Ubuntu and other distributions using Gnome3 is the same (literally just done the Fedora version of this and posting the actual fix to remind me how in the future).

Install dconf-editor
```
sudo apt-get install dconf-editor
```
Run dconf-editor using the user account you want this on, i.e NOT root
```
dconf-editor
```
Navigate to the following schema:

org.gnome.nautilus.preferences
Change the default option to not open by default:

Find executable-text-activation click the word display and change to ask

that will give you the option to edit, view or run the file going forward

score 2 · Answer 14 · edited Jun 16 '16 at 15:44

2

Well, I too faced the same problem. I wanted to execute the .sh file and it opened with Gedit on CentOS 7. So here is what I did:

I navigated to the path of the .sh file I wanted to execute.
I opened the terminal.
And I simply dragged and dropped the on the terminal window and it automatically took that file along with the path as input.
Hit Enter and you are good to go!

edited Jun 16 '16 at 15:44

grooveplex

2,486

answered Jun 16 '16 at 15:11

Jen Bates

21

score 2 · Answer 15 · edited Sep 14 '17 at 14:44

2

I am a noob in Linux and I just had the same problem. If all else fails:

Open terminal
Open the folder containing the .sh file
Drag and drop the file into the terminal window
The file's path appears in terminal. Press Enter.
Voila, your .sh file is run.

edited Sep 14 '17 at 14:44

wjandrea

14,236
4
48
98

answered May 07 '17 at 02:19

Linux_noob

21

score -3 · Answer 16 · answered Jan 02 '15 at 08:29

-3

You can also use . tricks, with the suggestion of other answers.

For example:

chmod +x filename.sh, assuming you have already gone to the path to file then run the file with any one of these command:

sh filename.sh

./filename.sh

. filename.sh

answered Jan 02 '15 at 08:29

Awais

285
1
3
9

2

warning: These three commands are not equivalent. If your shebang references a different binary (like Stack), then the third command will try parsing arguments with Bash, which will fail. – Jezen Thomas Feb 18 '17 at 11:12