bash: ?#!/bin/bash : command not found

Context

When programming a bash script and/or .bashrc, the first line of the script is written as 

#!/bin/bash

But when executing the script, it prints the following error message:

bash: ?#!/bin/bash : command not found

Root Cause

The script is probably stored as a UTF-8 file and there is a BOM added to the header. The BOM may read as 'EF BB BF' in HEX mode. 

See 

• http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4676053/cygwin-command-not-found-bad-characters-found-in-bashrc-357-273-277
• http://developer.nokia.com/Community/Discussion/showthread.php/4193-The-header-of-utf-8-file-Why-there-is-extra-char-quot-quot-when-saving-a-file-as

Solution

Remove the header using some advanced text editor features. Or create a new file and copy the content of the old script into the new file, hoping that the newly created file does not contain the BOM.

In Vim, run the following commands to remove BOM:

:set nobomb