How to find directory of some command?
LinuxShellCommand LineLinux Problem Overview
I know that when you are on shell, the only commands that can be used are the ones that can be found on some directory set on PATH. Even I don't know how to see what dirs are on my PATH variable (and this is another good question that could be answered), what I'd like to know is:
I come to shell and write:
$ lshw
I want to know a command on shell that can tell me WHERE this command is located. In other words, where this "executable file" is located?
Something like:
$ location lshw
/usr/bin
Linux Solutions
Solution 1 - Linux
If you're using Bash or zsh, use this:
type -a lshw
This will show whether the target is a builtin, a function, an alias or an external executable. If the latter, it will show each place it appears in your PATH
.
bash$ type -a lshw
lshw is /usr/bin/lshw
bash$ type -a ls
ls is aliased to `ls --color=auto'
ls is /bin/ls
bash$ zsh
zsh% type -a which
which is a shell builtin
which is /usr/bin/which
In Bash, for functions type -a
will also display the function definition. You can use declare -f functionname
to do the same thing (you have to use that for zsh, since type -a
doesn't).
Solution 2 - Linux
Like this:
which lshw
To see all of the commands that match in your path:
which -a lshw
Solution 3 - Linux
PATH
is an environment variable, and can be displayed with the echo command:
echo $PATH
It's a list of paths separated by the colon character ':
'
The which
command tells you which file gets executed when you run a command:
which lshw
sometimes what you get is a path to a symlink; if you want to trace that link to where the actual executable lives, you can use readlink
and feed it the output of which
:
readlink -f $(which lshw)
The -f
parameter instructs readlink
to keep following the symlink recursively.
Here's an example from my machine:
$ which firefox
/usr/bin/firefox
$ readlink -f $(which firefox)
/usr/lib/firefox-3.6.3/firefox.sh
Solution 4 - Linux
~$ echo $PATH
/home/jack/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games
~$ whereis lshw
lshw: /usr/bin/lshw /usr/share/man/man1/lshw.1.gz
Solution 5 - Linux
In the TENEX C Shell, tcsh, one can list a command's location(s), or if it is a built-in command, using the where
command e.g.:
tcsh% where python
/usr/local/bin/python
/usr/bin/python
tcsh% where cd
cd is a shell built-in
/usr/bin/cd
Solution 6 - Linux
An alternative to type -a
is command -V
Since most of the times I am interested in the first result only, I also pipe from head. This way the screen will not flood with code in case of a bash function.
command -V lshw | head -n1
Solution 7 - Linux
The Korn shell, ksh
, offers the whence
built-in, which identifies other shell built-ins, macros, etc. The which
command is more portable, however.
Solution 8 - Linux
TLDR Answer
Use: whereis -b lshw
.
Explanation
Use the whereis
command. From the man page:
>whereis
- locate the binary, source, and manual page files for a command
Commonly-Used Switches
In addition, you can specify what you're looking for:
whereis -b packagename
: Source for location of binaries.whereis -m packagename
: Source for location of manuals.whereis -s packagename
: Source for location of source code.
In your case, since you're looking for the binary, you'll want: whereis -b lshw
.
There are other switches with this command, check them out at the man page. If there is no file associated with a packagename, you'll see a blank line.
Examples
Here's some real world use:
holdoffhunger@tower:~$ whereis grep
grep: /bin/grep /usr/share/man/man1/grep.1.gz /usr/share/man/man1/grep.1posix.gz
holdoffhunger@tower:~$ whereis -m grep
grep: /usr/share/man/man1/grep.1.gz /usr/share/man/man1/grep.1posix.gz
holdoffhunger@tower:~$ whereis -s grep
grep: