Syntax error on bash for running python script

Question

I want run this simple python code int terminal:

#! /usr/bin/env python3

print('Hello world')

I saved this script as hello.py

I go to terminal to write down:

$ chmod +x hello.py

then I click enter. This is to allow permission to be granted. Terminal then showed me this:

-bash: $: command not found

Ok...I then write down the path to hello.py:

$ /Users/myname/Documents/MyPythonScripts/hello.py

I press enter. I was expecting terminal to print out hello world but to my horror, terminal show this:

/Users/myname/Documents/MyPythonScript/hello.py: line 3: syntax error near unexpected token `'Hello world''
/Users/hadi/Documents/MyPythonScript/hello.py: line 3: `print('Hello world')'

What's wrong here?

Btw, Running on macOS 10.13.3 and Python 3.6.3

Did you actually type the $ sign at the start of the line? If you saw it in examples, it is only the prompt, it's not part of the command. So simply enter chmod +x hello.py — Thierry Lathuille
– Thierry Lathuille, Commented Feb 22, 2018 at 11:20
It seems that your first line (the shebang line, starting with #!) isn't recognized. It could happen if your line endings are not Unix '\n', but Windows line endings. What editor did you create your script with? — Thierry Lathuille
– Thierry Lathuille, Commented Feb 22, 2018 at 11:41
Oh, I got it now. I have a blank space in my python script before #!/usr/bin/env python. Sorry to waste your time. — Izhan Hadi Bin Harlizan
– Izhan Hadi Bin Harlizan, Commented Feb 22, 2018 at 23:23

ababak · Accepted Answer · 2018-02-22 11:29:20Z

1

First of all, this line:

-bash: $: command not found

tells that you've executed the "$" which is not right.

Your command to set permissions should look like this:

chmod +x hello.py

Another comment is that the shebang line should be without space:

#!/usr/bin/env python3

answered Feb 22, 2018 at 11:29

ababak

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3 Comments

wjandrea Over a year ago

The space in the shebang doesn't matter. The real problem was a space before it, as OP said in a comment. (The problem could also be caused by a blank line before it, if that's what they meant.)

ababak Over a year ago

The real problem was that chmod has not been executed as shown in the OP's error text

wjandrea Over a year ago

No, if the script didn't have execute permissions, it wouldn't execute at all, and you'd get a different error: "Permission denied"

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