Getting a 'source: not found' error when using source in a bash script

If you're writing a bash script, call it by name:

#!/bin/bash

/bin/sh is not guaranteed to be bash. This caused a ton of broken scripts in Ubuntu some years ago (IIRC).

The source builtin works just fine in bash; but you might as well just use dot like Norman suggested.


In Ubuntu if you execute the script with sh scriptname.sh you get this problem.

Try executing the script with ./scriptname.sh instead.


In the POSIX standard, which /bin/sh is supposed to respect, the command is . (a single dot), not source. The source command is a csh-ism that has been pulled into bash.

Try

. $env_name/bin/activate

Or if you must have non-POSIX bash-isms in your code, use #!/bin/bash.