jruby bash script fails with bash 2.03: $ jruby -v /export/home/cacti/jruby-1.1b1/bin/jruby: while: command not found /export/home/cacti/jruby-1.1b1/bin/jruby: line 119: syntax error near unexpected token `do' /export/home/cacti/jruby-1.1b1/bin/jruby: line 119: `do' The problem are these two empty array declarations: java_args=() ruby_args=() This seems to be a bash 2.03 bug, but I haven't found any information reporting it. I have found a workaround to this issue. Empty arrays can be declared this way: declare -a java_args declare -a ruby_args So now jruby script works fine in Solaris 8. Note 1: bash-2.03 is the default bash shell in Solaris 8 Note 2: I don't know if this diff can be used as a patch: $ diff jruby jruby.orig 116,117c116,117 < declare -a java_args < declare -a ruby_args — > java_args=() > ruby_args=()