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search for a file in PATH

Terminal - search for a file in PATH
function sepath { echo $PATH |tr ":" "\n" |sort -u |while read L ; do cd "$L" 2>/dev/null && find . \( ! -name . -prune \) \( -type f -o -type l \) 2>/dev/null |sed "s@^\./@@" |egrep -i "${*}" |sed "s@^@$L/@" ; done ; }
2009-09-11 15:03:22
User: mobidyc
Functions: cd echo egrep find read sed sort tr
-1
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search for a file in PATH

search argument in PATH

accept grep expressions

without args, list all binaries found in PATH

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Alternatives

There are 5 alternatives - vote for the best!

Terminal - Alternatives
type <filename>
2009-09-14 09:37:23
User: danam
Functions: type
Tags: shell tr for PATH break
4
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search for a file in PATH

Also searches for aliases and shell builtins

Show sample output | Comments (1) | Add to favourites | Report as malicious
which <filename>
2009-09-12 00:51:24
User: Hal_Pomeranz
Functions: which
Tags: shell tr for PATH break
1
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search for a file in PATH
Comments (2) | Add to favourites | Report as malicious
for L in `echo :$PATH | tr : '\n'`; do F=${L:-"."}/fileName; if [ -f ${F} -o -h ${F} ]; then echo ${F}; break; fi; done
2009-09-11 16:14:36
User: arcege
Functions: echo tr
Tags: shell tr for PATH break
-1
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search for a file in PATH

Searches in order of the directories of $PATH. Stops after finding the entry; looks for only that fileName. Works in Bourne, Korn, Bash and Z shells.

Show sample output | Comments (0) | Add to favourites | Report as malicious

Know a better way?

If you can do better, submit your command here.

What others think

Don't sort the path because there may be two programs with the same name and the first in the path should show up first. Also, take advantage of grep regular expression and remove the sed scripts. Handle empty string cases.

function sepath { echo ${PATH} | tr : \\n | while read L; do find ${L:-"."} -type d ! -path ${L:-"."} -prune -o \( -type f -o -type l \) 2>/dev/null | grep -i "${L:-"."}/.*${*}"; done; }
Comment by arcege 192 weeks and 4 days ago

thanks for your comment arcege but your modifications are not efficients.

for example:

sepath ^ps

will not work with your hack.

however, you right, i should not sort the PATH.

Mobidyc

Comment by mobidyc 192 weeks and 3 days ago

Your point of view

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