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URL:
https://askubuntu.com/q/1051333
Title:
How to get the location of a program in Ubuntu terminal?
ID:
/2018/07/01/How-to-get-the-location-of-a-program-in-Ubuntu-terminal_
Created:
July 1, 2018
Edited: June 12, 2020
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September 15, 2024
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As David Foerster already mentioned, you can use type -a which will show all the locations a given executable can be found in the active $PATH:
$ type -a now
now is /home/rick/bin/now
now is /mnt/e/bin/now
type -a will also identify if the command is a shell built-in. For example:
$ type -a test
test is a shell builtin
test is /usr/bin/test
type -a will also identify if the command is a shell keyword. For example:
$ type -a if
if is a shell keyword
type a lists programs, commands, shell built-ins and shell keywords in the hierarchal order they would be called depending on the $PATH environment variable. By changing PATH= to a different order it changes which version of the program is called. This is handy when you have production, development and test program versions on the same machine.
Program isn’t in $PATH
What if the program isn’t in your path? The fastest way of finding it is with the locate command:
$ locate .bashrc
/etc/bash.bashrc
/etc/skel/.bashrc
/home/rick/.bashrc
/home/rick/.bashrc~
/mnt/e/.bashrc
/mnt/e/Temporary Work/.bashrc
/usr/share/base-files/dot.bashrc
/usr/share/doc/adduser/examples/adduser.local.conf.examples/bash.bashrc
/usr/share/doc/adduser/examples/adduser.local.conf.examples/skel/dot.bashrc
I kind of cheated here because .bashrc isn’t a real executable, it’s a “source” file to include in a bash script which is an executable. However it serves to illustrate appropriately.