Is there an equivalent of the Unix whereis command in Windows?
So that I could figure out where commands I can run actually is.
Is there an equivalent of the Unix whereis command in Windows?
So that I could figure out where commands I can run actually is.
The where command does what you want and goes back at least to the resource kit for Windows 98, and is included by default in Server 2003, Vista, and newer:
C:\>where csc
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5\csc.exe
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\csc.exe
If executed with no arguments (on Vista), it results in one of my favorite messages:
C:\>where
ERROR: The operation completed successfully.
If executing in PowerShell, be sure to include '.exe' to distinguish from any 'where' aliases or scripts along the path. ('where' is a typical alias for Where-Object.ps1)
C:\> where.exe where.exe
C:\Windows\System32\where.exe
where
just returns usage help now in Windows 7. Wanted to see it for myself :p
Get-Command
, or gcm
in the powershell, and don't try it without arguments
Jun 2, 2020 at 18:00
You can run the following PowerShell command:
gcm <command>
The Get-Command cmdlet gets all commands that are installed on the computer, including cmdlets, aliases, functions, filters, scripts, and applications. Get-Command gets the commands from PowerShell modules and commands that were imported from other sessions. To get only commands that have been imported into the current session, use the ListImported parameter.
Please, use where command:
> where app.exe
It is the best way to achieve your goal.
You can also use PowerShell command:
> $env:path.Split(';') | gci -Filter app.exe
and expanded version looks like this:
> $env:path.Split(';') | select -Unique | ? {$_ -and (test-path $_)} | gci -Filter app.exe
hackerish which.cmd:
@echo off
@set PATH=.;%PATH%
@rem
@rem about: something similar like the unix-alike-which, but with
@rem within pure cmd
@rem
if "%1" == "" (
@echo Usage:
@echo.
@echo which 'cmd'
@echo.
@echo.if 'cmd' is not found, ERRORLEVEL is set to 1
@echo.
) else (
( @for %%f in (%1 %1.exe %1.cmd %1.bat %1.pif) do if not "%%~$PATH:f" == "" ( @echo %%~$PATH:f ) else @set ERRORLEVEL=1)
)
Somewhere "out there" I found this batch file whereis.bat
:
@for %%e in (%PATHEXT%) do @for %%i in (%1%%e) do @if NOT "%%~$PATH:i"=="" echo %%~$PATH:i
Update: maybe I found it here.
Using the where command on windows 10, in cmd, I used the following command to recursively search c drive for copies of the c# compiler, csc.exe
.
c:\> where /r c:\ csc.exe
Sample:
I was searching for this today and since I'm on XP without the resource kit, I turned to powershell with the following command:
dir -path c:\ -filter ffmpeg.* -r
where
which only searches in the %PATH%
. Moreover it's much slower and gives errors for folders you don't have read permission
function find ($string) {
Get-ChildItem -Path 'c:\' -Recurse -Filter $string;
}
function whereis ($string) {
$superpath = "$env:Path;C:\Program Files;C:\Program Files (x86)";
(echo $superpath).Split(';') | Get-ChildItem -Recurse -Filter $string;
}
Example:
PS >find Mozilla.admx
Directory: C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions
Mode LastWriteTime Length Name
---- ------------- ------ ----
-a---- 1/27/2016 12:22 PM 37146 Mozilla.admx
PS >whereis firefox.exe
Directory: C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox
Mode LastWriteTime Length Name
---- ------------- ------ ----
-a---- 9/21/2017 5:30 PM 477136 firefox.exe
which.cmd
@echo off
if "%~1" equ "" (
echo usage: %~n0 [command] & exit /b 0
) else where $Path:%1 2>nul || (
echo | set /p x=%~n0: no '%1' in & path
)
doskey.exe
doskey which=where $1 2$Gnul
Usage:
> which.cmd git
C:\Program Files\Git\cmd\git.exe
> which.cmd foo
which: no 'foo' in PATH=C:\Windows\system32;C:\Windows;C:\Win
dows\System32\Wbem;C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0
\;C:\Windows\System32\OpenSSH\;C:\Program Files\PowerShell\7\;
You can try searching for the command using the following:
dir /s type-whatever-you-are-searching
type
andwhich
in the question title, along withwhereis
which I personally used only occasionally.type
is a popular Bash built-in andwhich
is a variant ofwhereis
restricted to searching commands (whereis
can also search forman
pages and the like).