bash – Strange “command not found” and “No such file or directory” errors

Very strange errors of multiple forms:

Running brew install c-ares fails with command not found, seemingly not even executing brew:

$ brew install c-ares
-bash: brew install c-ares: command not found

Yet brew install cmake executes brew as expected:

$ brew install cmake
Warning: Treating cmake as a formula. For the cask, use homebrew/cask/cmake
Warning: cmake 3.25.1 is already installed and up-to-date.
To reinstall 3.25.1, run:
  brew reinstall cmake

Cannot prepend /usr/local/opt/qt5/bin to $PATH with the error No such file or directory:

$ export PATH=/usr/local/opt/qt5/bin:$PATH
-bash: export PATH=/usr/local/opt/qt5/bin:/usr/local/bin:/System/Cryptexes/App/usr/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/Library/TeX/texbin:/usr/local/MacGPG2/bin:/opt/X11/bin:/Library/Apple/usr/bin: No such file or directory

That folder does exist:

$ [ -d /usr/local/opt/qt5/bin ] && echo "exists"
exists

As do all the others on $PATH:

$ echo $PATH
/usr/local/bin:/System/Cryptexes/App/usr/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/Library/TeX/texbin:/usr/local/MacGPG2/bin:/opt/X11/bin:/Library/Apple/usr/bin
$ for i in $(echo $PATH | awk -F: '{for (i=1; i<=NF; i++) { print $i; }}'); do if [ -d "$i" ]; then echo "$i exists"; else echo "$i does not exist"; fi; done
/usr/local/bin exists
/System/Cryptexes/App/usr/bin exists
/usr/bin exists
/bin exists
/usr/sbin exists
/sbin exists
/Library/TeX/texbin exists
/usr/local/MacGPG2/bin exists
/opt/X11/bin exists
/Library/Apple/usr/bin exists

Yet adding /tmp works:

$ export PATH=/tmp/:$PATH
$ echo $PATH
/tmp/:/usr/local/bin:/System/Cryptexes/App/usr/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/Library/TeX/texbin:/usr/local/MacGPG2/bin:/opt/X11/bin:/Library/Apple/usr/bin

Same errors with zsh:

$ zsh
% brew install c-ares
zsh: command not found: brew install c-ares
% brew install cmake
Warning: Treating cmake as a formula. For the cask, use homebrew/cask/cmake
Warning: cmake 3.25.1 is already installed and up-to-date.
To reinstall 3.25.1, run:
  brew reinstall cmake
% export PATH=/usr/local/opt/qt5/bin:$PATH
zsh: no such file or directory: export PATH=/usr/local/opt/qt5/bin:/tmp/:/usr/local/bin:/System/Cryptexes/App/usr/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/Library/TeX/texbin:/usr/local/MacGPG2/bin:/opt/X11/bin:/Library/Apple/usr/bin

I’m quite baffled and don’t know how to debug shell built-ins.

Nothing comes to mind of what recently changed that could cause this. I upgraded to Ventura 13.1 today hoping this would go away, but it was happening before the upgrade and continues to happen.

I tried restarting and it didn’t help.

System information:

% system_profiler SPSoftwareDataType SPHardwareDataType | grep -v -e UUID -e UDID -e 'User Name' -e 'Computer Name' -e Serial
Software:

    System Software Overview:

      System Version: macOS 13.1 (22C65)
      Kernel Version: Darwin 22.2.0
      Boot Volume: MainDisk
      Boot Mode: Normal
      Secure Virtual Memory: Enabled
      System Integrity Protection: Disabled
      Time since boot: 22 minutes, 2 seconds

Hardware:

    Hardware Overview:

      Model Name: MacBook Pro
      Model Identifier: MacBookPro15,1
      Processor Name: 6-Core Intel Core i7
      Processor Speed: 2.6 GHz
      Number of Processors: 1
      Total Number of Cores: 6
      L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
      L3 Cache: 9 MB
      Hyper-Threading Technology: Enabled
      Memory: 16 GB
      System Firmware Version: 1916.60.2.0.0 (iBridge: 20.16.2059.0.0,0)
      OS Loader Version: 564.40.4~55
      Activation Lock Status: Enabled