I started to get this error ( [: /etc/: binary operator expected ) every time I open a terminal in my Ubuntu box.(or if I called /bin/bash or just bash). I searched the net to no avail (most were related to Cygwin prog.) Then I started to play around and found out if I edit my .bashrc file and rem out these lines the error goes away!: #if [ -f /etc/ profile ]; then # sleep 10 #reboot #fi Just wanted to share... If anyone can shed more light on this, it will be great! thanks.