Question

An ordinary command not found error says:

bash: sadfasdf: command not found...

However, if executing [] in bash, it gives two error messages instead of one:

bash: []: command not found...
Failed to search for file: GDBus.Error:org.gtk.GDBus.UnmappedGError.Quark._pk_5ftransaction_5ferror.Code14: Invalid input passed to daemon: char '[' in text!

What does the second error message mean, and how does [] cause the error to happen?

Answer 1

You seem to have the same problem described here on the PackageKit mailing list. If you’re using PackageKit, that’s likely your problem.

More generally, you should check whatever seems to be running through the BASH command_not_found_handle function.

From man bash :

“If the search is unsuccessful, the shell searches for a defined shell function named
command_not_found_handle. If that function exists, it is invoked with the original
command and the original command’s arguments as its arguments, and the function’s
exit status becomes the exit status of the shell.”

Simply, it’s a function which is called whenever BASH can’t find the command you entered.

Seems likely something is defining that function, and doesn’t like square brackets!

grep around your /etc/profile and bash config files, it’ll be there somewhere 🙂