Linux - every command fails to execute

What would cause a Linux server, in this case a Citrix XenServer host, to return "syntax error near unexpected token" for almost every command?

So far I have tried a few key OS commands but to no avail. TOP returns "syntax error near unexpected token" whereas FREE returns "cannot execute binary file".

I have also run some XenServer-related commands and snapshots won't run due to "the VDI is not available".

Would a reboot fix this problem?

# pvscan                                            ùuqnð73qO@ä½Ó9*îû¯ì9"Qy20¨
ËÝKú }©ûácan: line 10: syntax error near unexpected token `oýêvÛÃNÎEKQS0ØÝ
         Kú^§91-Û_¦áü
ø~¹`Üpn©m~Ve         |º<·%®Úí:Sd
            /jmTdtÐni-`:ÆÚ ¬£5ÎajSØ
                                   8ªN{*¸[
                                          [í¬q°ãQ½XÍ3"½Þ±3ÖÀÎÑ['
/sbin/pvscan: line 10: `ËÝKú }©ûá
                                 Kú^§91-Û_¦áü
ø~¹`Üpn©m~Ve                                 |º<·%®Úí:Sd
            /jmTdtÐni-`:ÆÚ ¬£5ÎajSØ
                                   8ªN{*¸[
                                          [í¬q°ãQ½XÍ3"½Þ±3ÖÀÎÑ[(3®9b½H)«ÚD '

Reado

Posted 2015-03-21T11:31:34.947

Reputation: 421

Did you try a command built in in your shell? Do you have this problem from console too? If you specify a full path in the command invocation does it happens too? It seems that there is some function or script launched and non correctly formatted a ',", space missed before some [,],(,... maybe a variable misspelled... but it can be a lot of other things. – Hastur – 2015-03-21T13:20:15.067

Linux - every command fails to execute

Answers