{"id":13349,"date":"2019-04-01T21:51:46","date_gmt":"2019-04-01T21:51:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/?p=13349"},"modified":"2019-04-01T21:51:46","modified_gmt":"2019-04-01T21:51:46","slug":"5-ways-to-find-a-binary-command-description-and-location-on-file-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/2019\/04\/01\/5-ways-to-find-a-binary-command-description-and-location-on-file-system\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Ways to Find a \u2018Binary Command\u2019 Description and Location on File System"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the thousands of\u00a0commands\/programs available in Linux systems<\/a>, knowing the type and purpose of a given command as well as its location (absolute path) on the system can be a little challenge for newbies.<\/p>\n

Knowing a few details of commands\/programs not only helps a\u00a0Linux user master the numerous commands<\/a>, but it also enables a user understand what operations on the system to use them for, either from the command line or a script.<\/p>\n

Therefore, in this article we will explain to you five useful commands for showing a short description and the location of a given command.<\/p>\n

To discover new commands on your system look into all the directories in your\u00a0PATH<\/strong>\u00a0environmental variable. These directories store all the installed commands\/programs on the system.<\/p>\n

Once you find an interesting command name, before you proceed to read more about it probably in the man page, try to gather some shallow information about it as follows.<\/p>\n

Assuming you have echoed the values of\u00a0PATH<\/strong>\u00a0and moved into the directory\u00a0\/usr\/local\/bin<\/strong>\u00a0and noticed a new command called\u00a0fswatch (monitors file modification changes)<\/a>:<\/p>\n

$ echo $PATH\r\n$ cd \/usr\/local\/bin\r\n<\/pre>\n
\n
\"Find<\/a><\/p>\n
Find New Commands in Linux<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Now let\u2019s find out the description and location of the\u00a0fswatch<\/strong>\u00a0command using following different ways in Linux.<\/p>\n
1. whatis Command<\/h3>\n
whatis<\/strong>\u00a0is used to display one-line manual page descriptions of the command name (such as\u00a0fswatch<\/strong>\u00a0in the command below) you enter as an argument.<\/p>\n
If the description is too long some parts are trimmed of by default, use the\u00a0-l<\/code>\u00a0flag to show a complete description.<\/p>\n
$ whatis fswatch\r\n$ whatis -l fswatch\r\n<\/pre>\n
\n
\"Linux<\/a><\/p>\n
Linux whatis Command Example<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
2. apropos Command<\/h3>\n
apropos<\/strong>\u00a0searches for the manual page names and descriptions of the keyword (considered a\u00a0regex<\/strong>, which is the command name) provided.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0-l<\/code>\u00a0option enables showing of the compete description.<\/p>\n
$ apropos fswatch \r\n$ apropos -l fswatch\r\n<\/pre>\n
\n
\"Linux<\/a><\/p>\n
Linux apropos Command Example<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
By default, apropos may show an output of all matched lines, as in the example below. You can only match the exact keyword using the\u00a0-e<\/code>\u00a0switch:<\/p>\n
$ apropos fmt\r\n$ apropos -e fmt\r\n<\/pre>\n
\n
\"Linux<\/a><\/p>\n
Linux apropos Command Show by Keyword<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
3. type Command<\/h3>\n
type<\/strong>\u00a0tells you the full pathname of a given command, additionally, in case the command name entered is not a program that exists as a separate disk file, type also tells you the command classification:<\/p>\n
    \n
  1. Shell built-in command or<\/li>\n
  2. Shell keyword or reserved word or<\/li>\n
  3. An alias<\/li>\n
  4. <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
    $ type fswatch \r\n<\/pre>\n
    \n
    \"Linux<\/a><\/p>\n
    Linux type Command Example<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
    When the command is an alias for another command,\u00a0type<\/strong>\u00a0shows the command executed when the alias is run. Use the\u00a0alias<\/strong>\u00a0command to view all aliases created on your system:<\/p>\n
    $ alias\r\n$ type l\r\n$ type ll\r\n<\/pre>\n
    \n
    \"Show<\/a><\/p>\n
    Show All Aliases in Linux<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
    4. which Command<\/h3>\n
    which<\/strong>\u00a0helps to locate a command, it prints the absolute command path as below:<\/p>\n
    $ which fswatch \r\n<\/pre>\n
    \n
    \"Find<\/a><\/p>\n
    Find Linux Command Location<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
    Some binaries can be stored in more than one directory under the\u00a0PATH<\/strong>, use the\u00a0-a<\/code>\u00a0flag to show all matching pathnames.<\/p>\n
    5. whereis Command<\/h3>\n
    whereis<\/strong>\u00a0command locates the binary, source, and manual page files for the command name provided as follows:<\/p>\n
    $ whereis fswatch\r\n$ whereis mkdir \r\n$ whereis rm\r\n<\/pre>\n
    \n
    \"Linux<\/a><\/p>\n
    Linux whereis Command Example<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
    Although the commands above may be vital in finding some quick info about a command\/program, opening and reading through its manual page always provides a full documentation, including a list of other related programs:<\/p>\n
    $ man fswatch\r\n<\/pre>\n
    In this article, we reviewed five simple commands used to display short manual page descriptions and location of a command. You can make a contribution to this post or ask a question via the feedback section below.<\/p>\n
    Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
    With the thousands of\u00a0commands\/programs available in Linux systems, knowing the type and purpose of a given command as well as its location (absolute path) on the system can be a little challenge for newbies. Knowing a few details of commands\/programs not only helps a\u00a0Linux user master the numerous commands, but it also enables a user … <\/p>\n
    Continue reading “5 Ways to Find a \u2018Binary Command\u2019 Description and Location on File System”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-linux"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13349"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13349\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13350,"href":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13349\/revisions\/13350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}