Very Unexpected response from command 'set'

[HP Prototyping]

Hi,

I am contacting you about something I worry about while being taken into
the storm of a divorce (...), please pardon me if I am using the wrong
communication channel after going through several Google searches to have a
contact entry point.

I am facing unexpected behaviour from the command 'set' from any newly
opened terminal window to access the shell prompt of my "Linux Mint" system.

I was expecting to see only the content of environment variables (as
always), But, I discovered a pretty long dump of source code corresponding
mostly to shell scripting language (see sample screenshot) amongst a lot of
other unusual things.
The user account has been created very recently on this machine, nothing
special has been done to its configuration aside adding the user name to
half a dozen groups by using the provided GUI of Linux Mint 21 (Vanessa).

Well, just in case I accidentally put my fingers on something abnormal, I
share this discovery with you.

Trying to answer the questions asked by the Web page [url=
https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/html_node/Reporting-Bugs.html ]
that Google Search found for me:

$ man bash
...
GNU Bash 5.1      2020 October 29      BASH(1)
$ uname -a
Linux LG-16Z90Q-HP 5.15.0-125-generic #135-Ubuntu SMP Fri Sep 27 13:53:58
UTC 2024 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

unexpected result trigger:
$ set

Extra information, I have allowed Linux Mint Updater to run yesterday. No
idea if this could be a reason. Kernel updated (I forgot to remove from
update list), I should reboot the system very soon, saving pening work for
now...


I thank you very much in advance for your kindness with this pretty
"savage" potential problem(???) reporting email.

Best regards,
  Harold P.

Embedded Systems Engineer (actually looking for a job 2024-12)

Screenshot from 2024-12-03 09-39-16 -- 'set' command gives a shell script source code dump.png
Description: PNG image