Aug

sh: bad interpreter: Permission denied

Rai

Linux

bash, denied, error, fix, how, interpreter, Linux, pear, pecl, permission, php, red hat, server, xdebug

I recently tried installing xdebug on a RHEL 4 machine, and somehow, the server decided that it should refuse having xdebug installed. As if running a heavy Java app is not enough, I decided to add more processes for the server to run. And it looks like the server has got me:

[root@server src]# pecl install xdebug
downloading xdebug-2.0.5.tgz ...
Starting to download xdebug-2.0.5.tgz (287,621 bytes)
.............done: 287,621 bytes
12 source files, building
running: phpize
Configuring for:
PHP Api Version: 20041225
Zend Module Api No: 20060613
Zend Extension Api No: 220060519
/usr/local/bin/phpize: /tmp/pear/temp/xdebug/build/shtool: /bin/sh: bad interpreter: Permission denied

So, like I always do, I tackle the problem with my handy tool: Google. I found out that this error occurs when /tmp is mounted as read-only (ro). You can check this by looking at the /etc/fstab file and check the /tmp partition.

Okay, now I know what the problem is. How do I get over this?

Lazy that I am, I moved the /tmp/pear directory, and create a symlink to the root directory.

[root@server src]# mv /tmp/pear /tmp/pear-ori
[root@server src]# mkdir /root
[root@server src]# ln -s /tmp/pear /root/tmp/pear

Now that the directory from where the PECL scripts are running is in /root, the installation should go smoothly.

Another way to go around this is to remount the /tmp:

[root@server src]# mount -oremount,exec /tmp

I have not tried the above command because I thought that creating symlink is a safer approach rather than messing with the mounts.

If there are other ways to fix this, let me know using the comment box below.