WHICH(1) WHICH(1)
NAME
which - shows the full path of (shell) commands.
SYNOPSIS
which [options] [--] programname [...]
DESCRIPTION
Which takes one or more arguments. For each of its arguments 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 which='alias | which -i'.
--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 -f which
--skip-functions
Ignore option `--read-functions', if any. This is useful 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.
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--show-dot
If a directory in PATH starts with a dot and a matching 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 -f which
[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 environment
variable, which aborts when this variable doesn't exist. Which will
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consider two equivalent directories to be different when one of them
contains a path with a symbolic link.
AUTHOR
Carlo Wood <carlo@gnu.org>
SEE ALSO
bash(1)
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