I am getting 'bash: cd: too many arguments' and I have no idea why?

Question

I am trying to run the source .bashrc command on my terminal (Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS) and it seems to work but I keep getting the error:

bash: cd: too many arguments

I am not sure where this is coming from, for full disclosure my .bashrc is:

# ~/.bashrc: executed by bash(1) for non-login shells.
# see /usr/share/doc/bash/examples/startup-files (in the package bash-doc)
# for examples

# If not running interactively, don't do anything
case $- in
    *i*) ;;
      *) return;;
esac

# don't put duplicate lines or lines starting with space in the history.
# See bash(1) for more options
HISTCONTROL=ignoreboth

# append to the history file, don't overwrite it
shopt -s histappend

# for setting history length see HISTSIZE and HISTFILESIZE in bash(1)
HISTSIZE=1000                                                                 
HISTFILESIZE=2000

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

# If set, the pattern "**" used in a pathname expansion context will
# match all files and zero or more directories and subdirectories.
#shopt -s globstar

# make less more friendly for non-text input files, see lesspipe(1)
[ -x /usr/bin/lesspipe ] && eval "$(SHELL=/bin/sh lesspipe)"

# 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

# set a fancy prompt (non-color, unless we know we "want" color)
case "$TERM" in
    xterm-color|*-256color) color_prompt=yes;;
esac

# uncomment for a colored prompt, if the terminal has the capability; turned
# off by default to not distract the user: the focus in a terminal window
# should be on the output of commands, not on the prompt
#force_color_prompt=yes

if [ -n "$force_color_prompt" ]; then
    if [ -x /usr/bin/tput ] && tput setaf 1 >&/dev/null; then
  # We have color support; assume it's compliant with Ecma-48
  # (ISO/IEC-6429). (Lack of such support is extremely rare, and such
  # a case would tend to support setf rather than setaf.)
  color_prompt=yes
    else
   color_prompt=
     fi
 fi
 
 if [ "$color_prompt" = yes ]; then
     PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\[\033[01;32m\]\u@\h\[\033[00m\]:\[\033[01;34m\]\w\[\033[00m\]\$ '
 else
     PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\u@\h:\w\$ '
 fi
 unset color_prompt force_color_prompt
 
 # If this is an xterm set the title to user@host:dir
 case "$TERM" in
 xterm*|rxvt*)
     PS1="\[\e]0;${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\u@\h: \w\a\]$PS1"
     ;;
 *)
     ;;
 esac
 
 # enable color support of ls and also add handy aliases
 if [ -x /usr/bin/dircolors ]; then
     test -r ~/.dircolors && eval "$(dircolors -b ~/.dircolors)" || eval "$(dircolors -b)"
     alias ls='ls --color=auto'
     #alias dir='dir --color=auto'
     #alias vdir='vdir --color=auto'
 
     alias grep='grep --color=auto'
     alias fgrep='fgrep --color=auto'
     alias egrep='egrep --color=auto'
 fi
 
 # colored GCC warnings and errors
 #export GCC_COLORS='error=01;31:warning=01;35:note=01;36:caret=01;32:locus=01:quote=01'
 
 # some more ls aliases
 alias ll='ls -alF'
 alias la='ls -A'
 alias l='ls -CF'
 
 # Add an "alert" alias for long running commands.  Use like so:
 #   sleep 10; alert
 alias alert='notify-send --urgency=low -i "$([ $? = 0 ] && echo terminal || echo error)" "$(history|tail -n1|sed -e '\''s/^\s*[0-9]\+\s*//;s/[;&|]\s*alert$//'\'')"'
 
 # Alias definitions.
 # You may want to put all your additions into a separate file like
 # ~/.bash_aliases, instead of adding them here directly.
 # See /usr/share/doc/bash-doc/examples in the bash-doc package.

if [ -f ~/.bash_aliases ]; then
    . ~/.bash_aliases
fi

# enable programmable completion features (you don't need to enable
# this, if it's already enabled in /etc/bash.bashrc and /etc/profile
# sources /etc/bash.bashrc).
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

# pyenv - python version manager
export PATH="/home/jonathon/.pyenv/bin:$PATH"
eval "$(pyenv init -)"
eval "$(pyenv virtualenv-init -)"

export NVM_DIR="$HOME/.nvm"
[ -s "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" ] && \. "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh"  # This loads nvm
[ -s "$NVM_DIR/bash_completion" ] && \. "$NVM_DIR/bash_completion"  # This loads nvm bash_completion

export PATH="$HOME/.rbenv/bin:$PATH"
eval "$(rbenv init -)"    

My .bash_aliases is:

alias dev="cd ~/CRiiS/criisdev/"
alias test="cd ~/CRiiS/criistest"
alias criis="cd ~/CRiiS/criis"
alias live-web="ssh -T -tt live ssh live-web"
alias live="ssh live"
alias loc="cd ~/CRiiS/local"

However, I don't believe aliases is the issue as I have removed the file temporarily from my system and run the command again with the same issue.

If anyone can point me in the right direction with this I would be very grateful.

Answer 1

test is a bash builtin (a synonym for [ ) so you should use another name for your alias.

It is causing a problem in the "enable color support of ls and also add handy aliases" section of your .bashrc which uses test -r ~/.dircolors && ... to check for the readability of a file.
With your alias it gets expanded to cd ~/CRiiS/criistest -r ~/.dircolors which leads to your error as cd only takes a single non-option argument.

It would be possible to fix this specific occurence by using [ instead of test ( [ -r ~/.dircolors ] && ... ) but you will definitely run into further problems by shadowing a builtin.