How do I fix 'bad interpreter' error messages when trying to run shell scripts?

More often than not, this error indicates that the script in question has been written on a machine which inserted CR/CRLF's into the script (old MS-DOS style newline/linefeeds). Sometimes they appear as ^M's in the file where a newline is defined. Try running the command:

dos2unix <script name>

The command should return a prompt after it completes. Try run...