WHICH(1)WHICH(1)NAMEwhich - shows the full path of (shell) commands.
SYNOPSISwhich [options] [--] programname [...]
DESCRIPTION
Which takes one or more arguments. For each of its argu
ments it prints to stdout the full path of the executables
that would have been executed when this argument had been
entered at the shell prompt. It does this by searching for
an executable or script in the directories listed in the
environment variable PATH using the same algorithm as
bash(1).
This man page is generated from the file which.texinfo.
OPTIONS--all, -a
Print all matching executables in PATH, not just the
first.
--read-alias, -i
Read aliases from stdin, reporting matching ones on
stdout. This is useful in combination with using an
alias for which itself. For example
alias whichalias | which-.
--skip-alias
Ignore option `--read-alias, if any. This is useful
to explicity search for normal binaries, while using
the `--read-alias option in an alias or function for
which.
--read-functions
Read shell function definitions from stdin, reporting
matching ones on stdout. This is useful in combination
with using a shell function for which itself. For
example:
which() { declare -f | which--read-functions $@ }
export -fwhich--skip-functions
Ignore option `--read-functions, if any. This is use
ful to explicity search for normal binaries, while
using the `--read-functions option in an alias or
function for which.
--skip-dot
Skip directories in PATH that start with a dot.
--skip-tilde
Skip directories in PATH that start with a tilde and
executables which reside in the HOME directory.
1
WHICH(1)WHICH(1)--show-dot
If a directory in PATH starts with a dot and a match
ing executable was found for that path, then print
"./programname" rather than the full path.
--show-tilde
Output a tilde when a directory matches the HOME
directory. This option is ignored when which is
invoked as root.
--tty-only
Stop processing options on the right if not on tty.
--version,-v,-V
Print version information on standard output then exit
successfully.
--help
Print usage information on standard output then exit
successfully.
RETURN VALUE
Which returns the number of failed arguments, or -1 when
no `programname was given.
EXAMPLE
The recommended way to use this utility is by adding an
alias (C shell) or shell function (Bourne shell) for which
like the following:
[ba]sh:
which ()
{
(alias; declare -f) | /usr/bin/which --tty-only --read-alias --read-functions --show-tilde --show-dot $@
}
export -fwhich
[t]csh:
alias which alias | /usr/bin/which --tty-only --read-alias --show-dot --show-tilde
This will print the readable ~/ and ./ when starting which
from your prompt, while still printing the full path when
used from a script:
> which q2
~/bin/q2
> echo `which q2`
/home/carlo/bin/q2
BUGS
The HOME directory is determined by looking for the HOME
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WHICH(1)WHICH(1)
environment variable, which aborts when this variable
doesnt exist. Which will consider two equivalent direc
tories to be different when one of them contains a path
with a symbolic link.
AUTHOR
Carlo Wood <carlo@@gnu.org>
SEE ALSObash(1)
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