[SOLVED] bashdb startup error: bashdb/lib/setshow.sh: line 91: /dev/pts/2: Permission denied

Issue

I'm trying to use bashdb on CentOS 4.1 (unfortunately I can't choose a different/newer OS). I installed bash 4.2 then bashdb 4.2-0.8. THere were no complaints from configure, make, make checks, or make install: everything looked peachy.

But trying to use bashdb either as 'bash --debugger myscript' or 'bashdb myscript' always gets this error:

[bot@sjbld1 bin]$ bashdb --  putxen.sh
bash debugger, bashdb, release 4.2-0.8

Copyright 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 Rocky Bernstein
This is free software, covered by the GNU General Public License, and you are
welcome to change it and/or distribute copies of it under certain conditions.

/usr/local/share/bashdb/lib/setshow.sh: line 91: /dev/pts/2: Permission denied
/usr/local/share/bashdb/lib/setshow.sh: line 91: /dev/pts/2: Permission denied
/usr/local/share/bashdb/lib/setshow.sh: line 91: /dev/pts/2: Permission denied
/usr/local/share/bashdb/lib/setshow.sh: line 91: /dev/pts/2: Permission denied
[bot@sjbld1 bin]$

There's no line 91 in setshow.sh, and there's no /dev/pts in a directory listing of /dev.

Any suggestions how to proceed will be very much appreciated. I'm taking on a broken mess of shell script, and I'm not hot at bash (or Linux) and hope for more intimate debugging than set -x and echo statements.

Thanks

For completeness I should have added the bash script I was trying to use as bashdb test, as requested by konsolebox, though the "Permission denied" problem occurs with any code, and is solved by using sudo as suggested by Red Cricket. Here's the script:

[bot@sjcpbrvpxbld1 bin]$ cat putxen.sh
if [ x$1 == x ]
then
    echo must have filename as parameter
    exit 1
fi
if [ -e $1 ]
then
    echo $1 found
else
    echo cannot find ./$1
    exit 1
fi
FTPTGT=10.10.10.25
DIRTGT=xva
echo ftp upload file to $DIRTGT directory on $FTPTGT
ftp -n $FTPTGT <<EOF
user anonymous pass
hash
bin
cd $DIRTGT
put "$1"
bye

Solution

Since programs often have stdout and stderr redirected, bashdb tries to write its output to a tty, unless directed otherwise; bashdb determines the console running the tty command.

Normally you don't need to run bashdb as root. But for reasons that are a mystery here, the user you are running bashdb as, is not able to write to the tty registered to it. That is:

 echo hi > $(tty)

will probably give you the same "Permission denied". Probably ls -l $(tty) will tell you what's up there.

However, as suggested in the comments, you can workaround this by running as root such as via sudo: e.g.

sudo bashdb --  putxen.sh

Another workaround is to add your user to the group, e.g. tty that is listed when you run ls -l $(tty).

Answered By - rocky