Find path to an executable

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).

posted 3 months ago

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Karl Knechtel‭

376 reputation 17 7 58 10

GNU which does the trick:

$ which find
/usr/bin/find

It's very likely already installed.

posted 3 months ago

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Iizuki‭

610 reputation 27 32 80 17

If you need this in a portable POSIX-compliant script, you should not use which but this instead:

command -v find

posted 3 months ago

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Ordoviz‭

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