# Ping fail with error 127 '/bin/bash: line 1: xxx: command not found\\n'

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/ping-fail-with-error-127-bin-bash-line-1-xxx-command-not-found-n/39572>\
**Category:** Get Help\
**Tags:** ping, debian\
**Created:** [January 13, 2025, 3:33pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ping-fail-with-error-127-bin-bash-line-1-xxx-command-not-found-n/39572 "2025-01-13T15:33:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 13\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Laurent\_ROGER](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/laurent_roger/32/7193_2.png) [@Laurent\_ROGER](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Laurent_ROGER)\
**Post date:** [January 13, 2025, 3:33pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ping-fail-with-error-127-bin-bash-line-1-xxx-command-not-found-n/39572/1 "2025-01-13T15:33:53Z")

</div>

Hi,  
I’ve run same installation task with ansible successfully on a few Debian 11 and 12 servers, first step is to check if all is setup with `ansible all -m ping`. Everything works fine except with one Debian 12 server

ansible server (Debian 11) :

```auto
ansible all -m ping -vvv
ansible [core 2.12.5]
  config file = /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg
  configured module search path = ['/root/.ansible/plugins/modules', '/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
  ansible python module location = /usr/local/lib/python3.9/dist-packages/ansible
  ansible collection location = /root/.ansible/collections:/usr/share/ansible/collections
  executable location = /usr/local/bin/ansible
  python version = 3.9.2 (default, Dec 1 2024, 12:12:57) [GCC 10.2.1 20210110]
  jinja version = 2.11.3
  libyaml = True
Using /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg as config file
host_list declined parsing /etc/ansible/hosts as it did not pass its verify_file() method
script declined parsing /etc/ansible/hosts as it did not pass its verify_file() method
auto declined parsing /etc/ansible/hosts as it did not pass its verify_file() method
[WARNING]: Invalid characters were found in group names but not replaced, use -vvvv to see details
Parsed /etc/ansible/hosts inventory source with ini plugin
Skipping callback 'default', as we already have a stdout callback.
Skipping callback 'minimal', as we already have a stdout callback.
Skipping callback 'oneline', as we already have a stdout callback.
META: ran handlers
<remote ip> ESTABLISH SSH CONNECTION FOR USER: xxxxx
<remote ip> SSH: EXEC ssh -C -o ControlMaster=auto -o ControlPersist=60s -o KbdInteractiveAuthentication=no -o PreferredAuthentications=gssapi-with-mic,gssapi-keyex,hostbased,publickey -o PasswordAuthentication=no -o 'User="xxxxx"' -o ConnectTimeout=10 -o 'ControlPath="/root/.ansible/cp/3f945fea3f"' remote ip '/bin/sh -c '"'"'echo ~xxxxx && sleep 0'"'"''
<remote ip> (127, b'/home/xxxxx\n', b'/bin/sh: 1: sleep: not found\n')
<remote ip> Failed to connect to the host via ssh: /bin/sh: 1: sleep: not found
<remote ip> ESTABLISH SSH CONNECTION FOR USER: xxxxx
<remote ip> SSH: EXEC ssh -C -o ControlMaster=auto -o ControlPersist=60s -o KbdInteractiveAuthentication=no -o PreferredAuthentications=gssapi-with-mic,gssapi-keyex,hostbased,publickey -o PasswordAuthentication=no -o 'User="xxxxx"' -o ConnectTimeout=10 -o 'ControlPath="/root/.ansible/cp/3f945fea3f"' remote ip '/bin/sh -c '"'"'( umask 77 && mkdir -p "` echo /home/xxxxx/.ansible/tmp `"&& mkdir "` echo /home/xxxxx/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1736781642.3676438-935005-233802510071625 `" && echo ansible-tmp-1736781642.3676438-935005-233802510071625="` echo /home/xxxxx/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1736781642.3676438-935005-233802510071625 `" ) && sleep 0'"'"''
<remote ip> (127, b'', b'/bin/sh: 1: mkdir: not found\n')
<remote ip> Failed to connect to the host via ssh: /bin/sh: 1: mkdir: not found
remote ip | UNREACHABLE! => {
    "changed": false,
    "msg": "Failed to create temporary directory.In some cases, you may have been able to authenticate and did not have permissions on the target directory. Consider changing the remote tmp path in ansible.cfg to a path rooted in \"/tmp\", for more error information use -vvv. Failed command was: ( umask 77 && mkdir -p \"` echo /home/xxxxx/.ansible/tmp `\"&& mkdir \"` echo /home/xxxxx/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1736781642.3676438-935005-233802510071625 `\" && echo ansible-tmp-1736781642.3676438-935005-233802510071625=\"` echo /home/xxxxx/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1736781642.3676438-935005-233802510071625 `\" ), exited with result 127",
    "unreachable": true
}

```

target server Debian 12 (bookworm)

```auto
python3 -m pip -V
pip 23.0.1 from /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/pip (python 3.11)

```

if I connect to the remote server with ssh and user xxxxxx, I have access, I have a bash and can run sleep, mkdir or whatever command.

I’ve tried to add in ansible.cfg

```auto
[defaults]
executable = /bin/bash

```

Not better ! Any idea ?  
Thank you  
Best wishes for 2025 !

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![chris](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/chris/32/293_2.png) [@chris](https://forum.ansible.com/u/chris)\
**Post date:** [January 13, 2025, 5:42pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ping-fail-with-error-127-bin-bash-line-1-xxx-command-not-found-n/39572/2 "2025-01-13T17:42:47Z")

</div>

Try:

```ini
[defaults]
executable = /usr/bin/bash

```

It’s moved!

However I’m not sure this is the issue, isn’t the problem here?

> [@Laurent\_ROGER](#):
>
> `Failed to connect to the host via ssh`

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bcoca](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/bcoca/32/9269_2.png) [@bcoca](https://forum.ansible.com/u/bcoca)\
**Post date:** [January 13, 2025, 10:00pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ping-fail-with-error-127-bin-bash-line-1-xxx-command-not-found-n/39572/3 "2025-01-13T22:00:20Z")

</div>

Are the target machines POSIX/linux? Do they restrict the shell of the login user? is `/bin/sh` present? is PATH set for batch logins?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Laurent\_ROGER](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/laurent_roger/32/7193_2.png) [@Laurent\_ROGER](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Laurent_ROGER)\
**Post date:** [January 13, 2025, 10:22pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ping-fail-with-error-127-bin-bash-line-1-xxx-command-not-found-n/39572/4 "2025-01-13T22:22:04Z")

</div>

The target is Debian 12 as other Debian 12 where the ansible ping works fine, so I try to figure out what are the differences 😉  
How can I check if it restricts the shell of the login user ? (I wrote I can connect via ssh, the shell is bash) → I will try @chris suggestion for the bash path.  
I don’t know if /bin/sh is present (why it would not be) → will check  
but you can see that

```auto
/bin/sh: 1: mkdir: not found

```

means that /bin/sh exists but not mkdir (very strange)

how to check if iPATH is set for batch logins ?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bcoca](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/bcoca/32/9269_2.png) [@bcoca](https://forum.ansible.com/u/bcoca)\
**Post date:** [January 13, 2025, 10:26pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ping-fail-with-error-127-bin-bash-line-1-xxx-command-not-found-n/39572/5 "2025-01-13T22:26:51Z")

</div>

something like `ssh user@host 'env |grep PATH'`

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Laurent\_ROGER](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/laurent_roger/32/7193_2.png) [@Laurent\_ROGER](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Laurent_ROGER)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2025, 9:40am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ping-fail-with-error-127-bin-bash-line-1-xxx-command-not-found-n/39572/6 "2025-01-14T09:40:13Z")

</div>

On the target Debian,

```auto
$ which bash
/usr/bin/bash

$ ls -al /bin
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Nov 12 14:43 /bin -> usr/bin

```

So anyway /bin/bash is correct  
I’ve changed to /usr/bin/bash =\> not solved

```auto
<remote ip> ESTABLISH SSH CONNECTION FOR USER: xxxxx
<remote ip> SSH: EXEC ssh -C -o ControlMaster=auto -o ControlPersist=60s -o KbdInteractiveAuthentication=no -o PreferredAuthentications=gssapi-with-mic,gssapi-keyex,hostbased,publickey -o PasswordAuthentication=no -o 'User="xxxxx"' -o ConnectTimeout=10 -o 'ControlPath="/root/.ansible/cp/3f945fea3f"' remote ip '/usr/bin/bash -c '"'"'echo ~xxxxx && sleep 0'"'"''
<remote ip> (127, b'/home/xxxxx\n', b'/usr/bin/bash: line 1: sleep: command not found\n')
<remote ip> Failed to connect to the host via ssh: /usr/bin/bash: line 1: sleep: command not found

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Laurent\_ROGER](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/laurent_roger/32/7193_2.png) [@Laurent\_ROGER](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Laurent_ROGER)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2025, 9:40am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ping-fail-with-error-127-bin-bash-line-1-xxx-command-not-found-n/39572/7 "2025-01-14T09:40:53Z")

</div>

> [@bcoca](#):
>
> env |grep PATH

```auto
$ env |grep PATH
PATH=/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/local/games:/usr/games:/snap/bin

$ ls -al /bin/sh
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 4 Jan 5 2023 /bin/sh -> dash

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Laurent\_ROGER](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/laurent_roger/32/7193_2.png) [@Laurent\_ROGER](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Laurent_ROGER)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2025, 10:01am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ping-fail-with-error-127-bin-bash-line-1-xxx-command-not-found-n/39572/8 "2025-01-14T10:01:00Z")

</div>

next experiment :

```auto
$ ssh xxxxx@remoteip "pwd"
/home/xxxxx

$ ssh xxxxx@remoteip "cd /etc; pwd"
/etc

$ ssh xxxxx@remoteip "cd /etc; pwd; ls"
/etc
bash: line 1: ls: command not found

$ ssh xxxxx@remoteip "ps"
bash: line 1: ps: command not found

$ ssh xxxxx@remoteip "/usr/bin/ps"
    PID TTY TIME CMD
 381570 ? 00:00:00 systemd
 381571 ? 00:00:00 (sd-pam)
 381617 ? 00:00:00 sshd
 381619 ? 00:00:00 ps

```

🙃

I found no difference in /etc/ssh/sshd\_config compared to another Debian12 where the ansible ping works.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bcoca](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/bcoca/32/9269_2.png) [@bcoca](https://forum.ansible.com/u/bcoca)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2025, 7:19pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ping-fail-with-error-127-bin-bash-line-1-xxx-command-not-found-n/39572/9 "2025-01-14T19:19:20Z")

</div>

> [@bcoca](#):
>
> `ssh user@host 'env |grep PATH'`

^ i specifically asked for it over ssh as your login will create a different environment than a ‘batch’ ssh command run

From `man ssh`:

```auto
   If a command is specified, it will be executed on the remote host instead of a login shell. A complete command line may be specified as command, or it may have ad‐
     ditional arguments. If supplied, the arguments will be appended to the command, separated by spaces, before it is sent to the server to be executed.

```

Ansible does not do interactive logins but sends ‘ssh commands’.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Laurent\_ROGER](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/laurent_roger/32/7193_2.png) [@Laurent\_ROGER](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Laurent_ROGER)\
**Post date:** [January 15, 2025, 8:35am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ping-fail-with-error-127-bin-bash-line-1-xxx-command-not-found-n/39572/10 "2025-01-15T08:35:02Z")

</div>

```auto
ssh xxxxx@remoteip 'env | grep PATH'
bash: line 1: env: command not found
bash: line 1: grep: command not found

```

If I run the same command on another host where the ping command works, of course this works, I can get PATH from env with bash

```auto
ssh xxxxx@anotherremoteip 'env | grep PATH'
bash: warning: setlocale: LC_ALL: cannot change locale (en_US.UTF-8)
PATH=/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/games

```

it looks like the bash command has lost the PATH, so the command is not found ?

Let’s try this, force PATH before the commands

```auto
ssh xxxxx@remoteip 'PATH=/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin; env | grep PATH'
PATH=/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin

```

ok, so this is PATH related issue

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Laurent\_ROGER](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/laurent_roger/32/7193_2.png) [@Laurent\_ROGER](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Laurent_ROGER)\
**Post date:** [January 15, 2025, 9:11am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ping-fail-with-error-127-bin-bash-line-1-xxx-command-not-found-n/39572/11 "2025-01-15T09:11:20Z")

</div>

I modified the .bashrc to ensures that the `PATH` is set even when the shell is non-interactive. I’ve added at top of .bashrc

```auto
if [-z "$PS1"]; then
    # Non-interactive shell
    export PATH=/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin
fi

```

and now it works for the ansible ping on the 2 hosts having the issue

```auto
ansible all -m ping
[WARNING]: Invalid characters were found in group names but not replaced, use
-vvvv to see details
remoteip | SUCCESS => {
    "ansible_facts": {
        "discovered_interpreter_python": "/usr/bin/python3"
    },
    "changed": false,
    "ping": "pong"
}

```

But the mystery is still here : why it works without any modification on most hosts and need to be fixed on others ?  
Anyway thank you @bcoca @chris for your help.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Laurent\_ROGER](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/laurent_roger/32/7193_2.png) [@Laurent\_ROGER](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Laurent_ROGER)\
**Post date:** [January 15, 2025, 9:21am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ping-fail-with-error-127-bin-bash-line-1-xxx-command-not-found-n/39572/12 "2025-01-15T09:21:21Z")

</div>

On one host, I had to get back ansible.cfg to /bin/bash, because /usr/bin is not link to /bin, bash is in /bin/bash

```auto
[defaults]
executable = /bin/bash

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dnmvisser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8e8cbc/32.png) [@dnmvisser](https://forum.ansible.com/u/dnmvisser)\
**Post date:** [January 15, 2025, 12:35pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ping-fail-with-error-127-bin-bash-line-1-xxx-command-not-found-n/39572/13 "2025-01-15T12:35:45Z")

</div>

I would reinstall the system, with ansible, so you at least start with reproducible hosts 🙂