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Comments on Find path to an executable

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Find path to an executable

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How to find the exact path to an executable file present in your PATH. I.e. commands you can call by just their names.

E.g. what executable gets called when I type find and hit enter?

$ hypothetical-find-path find
/path/to/find
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which only tells you about a path that would be found in PATH. Often, people who think they have this question have a more general question - i.e., what will be used when the named command is requested. In particular, aside from being executables on PATH, commands can also refer to shell builtins.

The type command gives this information. With the -a flag, it can also disclose multiple implementations of a command, in preference order. For example, on my system:

$ type -a echo
echo is a shell builtin
echo is /usr/bin/echo
echo is /bin/echo

The echo executable on my system is hard-linked in those locations, but neither would ordinarily be used (as the shell builtin would be preferred).

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Details I just found on Stack Exchange (1 comment)
which can also give more information (1 comment)
which can also give more information
GeraldS‭ wrote 3 months ago

which also gives me information about aliases and such (at least in zsh)