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Accepted
user784637
Asked: 2011-11-14 22:53:12 +0800 CST

How do you find the directory of a command? [duplicate]

  • 772

Possible Duplicate:
Location of file folders of installed programs

For example the following are the same

# /usr/bin/php updateDatabase.php

# php updateDatabase.php

But how would I infer the location of the php command to be in /usr/bin?

command-line

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    You can use the whereis command to find the location of an executable binary on your system.

    Example:

    $ whereis ls
ls: /bin/ls /usr/share/man/man1/ls.1.gz

    EDIT: From this answer to a similar question, you can also use the which command.

    Example:

    $ which ls
/bin/ls
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  2. When the program can be run without specifying the full path, then its directory is in your $PATH variable.

    Run

    $ echo $PATH
/home/cweiske/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games
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