oracular (1) which.gnu.1.gz

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.

       --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 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)

                                                                                                        WHICH(1)