How to get an executable path on Linux

Question

I am calling an 'executable' on Linux. One way by console and another from a PHP script. They both call other executables (I see it by the version of the file). So I need a way to display a path to the executable that will be called when I try to run it. How do I do this on Linux?

Answer 1

You can use

$ which yourcommand

For example

$ which cat
   /bin/cat

You can also get the full path with

$ echo $PATH
   /usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin/X11

The : separate the paths that are used, in order or preference.

Note that the PATH can be different between users, so if your PHP script is executed with the www-data user for example, you have to check the PATH set for www-data. In general, it might be safer to specify the full path to the executable when you need to use a specific version of a program.

Answer 2

In Bash, use type -a command.

Answer 3

You can use

# which your_binary

or

# locate your_binary

to see where the binaries or located.