Manual Pages for UNIX Operating System command usage for man which

User Commands                                            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 exe-
     cutable or script in the directories listed in the environ-
     ment 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 exam-
         ple:
         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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User Commands                                            WHICH(1)



     --show-dot
         If a directory in PATH starts with a dot and a matching
         executable was found for that path, then print "./pro-
         gramname" rather than the full path.

     --show-tilde
         Output a tilde when a directory matches the HOME direc-
         tory. 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





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User Commands                                            WHICH(1)



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  direc-
     tories to be different when one of them contains a path with
     a symbolic link.

AUTHOR
     Carlo Wood 

SEE ALSO
     bash(1)

ATTRIBUTES
     See attributes(5) for descriptions of the  following  attri-
     butes:

     _______________________________________
    |   ATTRIBUTE TYPE   |  ATTRIBUTE VALUE|
    |____________________|__________________|_
    | Availability       |  shell/which    |
    |____________________|__________________|_
    | Interface Stability|  Uncommitted    |
    |____________________|_________________|

NOTES
     Source for GNU which is available on http://opensolaris.org.




























SunOS 5.10                Last change:                          3