mjhjmtu

I put "source /etc/profile" in /etc/bash.bashrc and unable to open terminal window in ubuntu 16.04, and now, whenever I try to open a terminal window, it closes after a few seconds. During those few seconds, there is no prompt and it does not except commands.

My /etc/bash.bashrc looks like

# System-wide .bashrc file for interactive bash(1) shells.

# To enable the settings / commands in this file for login shells as well,
# this file has to be sourced in /etc/profile.

# If not running interactively, don't do anything
[ -z "$PS1" ] && return

# check the window size after each command and, if necessary,
# update the values of LINES and COLUMNS.
shopt -s checkwinsize

# set variable identifying the chroot you work in (used in the prompt below)
if [ -z "$debian_chroot:-" ] && [ -r /etc/debian_chroot ]; then
 debian_chroot=$(cat /etc/debian_chroot)
fi

source /etc/profile
alias login="sudo login"

# set a fancy prompt (non-color, overwrite the one in /etc/profile)
PS1='$debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)u@h:w$ '

# Commented out, don't overwrite xterm -T "title" -n "icontitle" by default.
# If this is an xterm set the title to user@host:dir
#case "$TERM" in
#xterm*|rxvt*)
# PROMPT_COMMAND='echo -ne "33]0;$USER@$HOSTNAME: $PWD07"'
# ;;
#*)
# ;;
#esac

# enable bash completion in interactive shells
#if ! shopt -oq posix; then
# if [ -f /usr/share/bash-completion/bash_completion ]; then
# . /usr/share/bash-completion/bash_completion
# elif [ -f /etc/bash_completion ]; then
# . /etc/bash_completion
# fi
#fi

# sudo hint
if [ ! -e "$HOME/.sudo_as_admin_successful" ] && [ ! -e "$HOME/.hushlogin" ] ; then
 case " $(groups) " in * admin *|* sudo *)
 if [ -x /usr/bin/sudo ]; then
 cat <<-EOF
 To run a command as administrator (user "root"), use "sudo <command>".
 See "man sudo_root" for details.

 EOF
 fi
 esac
fi

# if the command-not-found package is installed, use it
if [ -x /usr/lib/command-not-found -o -x /usr/share/command-not-found/command-not-found ]; then
 function command_not_found_handle 
 # check because c-n-f could've been removed in the meantime
 if [ -x /usr/lib/command-not-found ]; then
 /usr/lib/command-not-found -- "$1"
 return $?
 elif [ -x /usr/share/command-not-found/command-not-found ]; then
 /usr/share/command-not-found/command-not-found -- "$1"
 return $?
 else
 printf "%s: command not foundn" "$1" >&2
 return 127
 fi
 
fi

This is my /etc/profile

# /etc/profile: system-wide .profile file for the Bourne shell (sh(1))
# and Bourne compatible shells (bash(1), ksh(1), ash(1), ...).
export NODE_REPL_HISTORY=""
unset HISTFILE
set +o history
alias login="sudo login"

if [ "$PS1" ]; then
 if [ "$BASH" ] && [ "$BASH" != "/bin/sh" ]; then
 # The file bash.bashrc already sets the default PS1.
 # PS1='h:w$ '
 if [ -f /etc/bash.bashrc ]; then
 . /etc/bash.bashrc
 fi
 else
 if [ "`id -u`" -eq 0 ]; then
 PS1='# '
 else
 PS1='$ '
 fi
 fi
fi

if [ -d /etc/profile.d ]; then
 for i in /etc/profile.d/*.sh; do
 if [ -r $i ]; then
 . $i
 fi
 done
 unset i
fi 

I am 99% sure that the reason the terminal closes is the infinite loop I accidentally created, where one calls the other and the other calls the one.

What can I do?

The problem is indeed the infinite loop. The shell reads /etc/profile, sees that it needs to read /etc/bash.bashrc and does so, sees that it needs to read /etc/profile and does so, etc. Eventually the shell decides that it's recursing too deeply and gives up.

Press Ctrl+C while the shell is still working its way through the startup files. You'll get a prompt.

Then remove both the inclusion of /etc/bash.bashrc in /etc/profile and the inclusion of /etc/profile in /etc/bash.bashrc. Those files have different roles:

• 
  /etc/profile is read at login time and does things like setting environment variables. It is often executed by a shell other than bash.


• 
  /etc/bash.bashrc is a configuration file of bash, only for interactive sessions. It should contain things like aliases and prompts. Bash loads it when you run bash in a terminal.

ok, in that case...

I suggest you to create a live-usb with any distro that you like. Turn on your computer from the liveusb and then mount the partition where is your / something like

mount /dev/sdX /mnt

/mnt would be in your liveISO.

then just edit with nano, vim, or any other text editor your configuration and erase one the those lines.

Then umount your disk and restart the computer, it should work.

Hope it helps