fsck returned a clean filesystem.

root was configured for /bin/sh

root has the following...
.Xauthority
.cshrc
.ddd/
.klogin
.login
.mozilla/
.profile
.shrc
.xinitrc
... other data files and directories including a bash script I use for renaming files. This script is invoked manually, not from any scripts.

copying /bin/sh into /bin/bash did the trick. Now how do I restore /bin/bash or find the original problem?

George Michaelson wrote:
> root defined in /etc/passwd to use bash? init somehow kicking into a fork/exec
> based on passwd shell not script interpreter?
> 
> contents of /root/.[a-z]*
> 
> bash, link it statically not dynamically and see if the problem goes away?
> 
> (temporarily) replace /bin/bash by /bin/sh and see if the problem goes away
> 
> (ie mv /bin/bash /bin/bash.old; cp /bin/sh /bin/bash)
> 
> -George
> 
>