which - shows the full path of (shell) commands.


SYNOPSIS

       which [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 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 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 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.

           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

       A useful way to use this utility is by adding an alias for
       which like the following:

            alias which=´which --tty-only --show-tilde --show-dot´

       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

       Aliases  are  also  supported, through the use of an alias
       for which itself. An example alias for which that is using
       this feature is as follows:

            alias which=´alias | which --tty-only --read-alias --show-tilde --show-dot´

       This  will  print  the output of alias for each alias that
       matches one of the given  arguments.  For  example,  using
       this alias on itself in a tcsh:

            $ alias which alias \| /usr/bin/which -i !\*
            $ which which
            which   (alias | /usr/bin/which -i !*)
                 /usr/bin/which


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 directo­
       ries to be different when one of them contains a path with
       a symbolic link.


AUTHOR

       Carlo Wood <carlo@gnu.org>

       bash(1)


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