Where command? hmm

hi all, forgot the command to see where and if a program is installed.

eg:

where perl
would display /usr/local/perl

or whatever, its not 'where', what command am I after?

Cheers
Taz

whereis perl
which perl
locate perl
find / -name perl -print

//NoXcuz

Tab completion is a beautiful thing.... so is Google.

Cheers noCux

Secondly, google is only any good when you a have a vague idea as to what you're looking for, as it doesnt support wild cards, looking for mystery objects can be frustrating.

Lastly, whats the point in a linux forum if I cant ask a linux question ?!

Regards

When I googled for "Linux commands reference" I came up with:
http://linux.juxta.com/command.html
as the 2nd hit. It covers the "which" and "find" commands. Searching this Linux forum for "find program" and then choosing the first result also mentions the "find" command.

I would also recommend keeping a book of some sort available so that you can look up this sort of thing. It's much faster than waiting for someone to respond anyway.

At any rate, I don't want to come off as entirely negative, so allow me to suggest this little introduction (if you need/are looking for one, anyway):

http://www.symonds.net/~deep/stuff/linux/index.php

I've never used it myself, but it was posted on Newsforge a while back and people seemed to think it was decent.

Of course, a rudimentary understanding of UNIX directory structure would go a long way here.

/bin - system-critical binaries that need to be accessible by everyone (ls, mv, cp, etc.)
/sbin - system-critical binaries that only admins need to get at (rmmod, shutdown, fdisk, etc.)
/usr/bin - general repository for all globally-accessible binaries
/usr/sbin - general repository for all admin-only binaries

And, if you so choose to do things your own way:

/usr/local/(s?)bin - binaries installed by something other than the distribution package system, for all users (or admins only, for sbin)
/opt/bin - binaries installed by some 3rd-party software

And those should be the only places you really ever need to look.

Ctb, there's no need to attack people when they haven't yet learnt how to do things. A simple reply suggesting how etones could have foun dthe information would have been an awful lot nicer than a rude "use google" reply :P

Anyway, there's a nice tutorial on the filesystem and directory structure that you might want to read here: http://www.newtolinux.org.uk/tutorials/filesystem.shtml

It wasn't rude, it was terse. Besides, the answer had already been provided to the specific question, so, rather than being a useless bastard, I provided a tutorial that (should|will) help in the future.

BTW... if/when you go to get a book, don't waste a ton of money on a brand new one. Go buy a Unix or Linux book off of a clearance rack. I got a huge Unix book from a place called Ollie's for like $10 USD. Not good for learning a specific system, but makes a perfectly good reference for commands and whatnot.

I must admit that Ctb wasn't really attacking someone,he was just saying that there's no need to ask stuff in the forum that you can find yourself via Google (which is faster anyways).

Btw Strike,thanks for the explanation,I was wondering why there are so many bin directories.

hehe, cheers for all the info guys

Easy on Ctb, im sure you get my type of crappy questions all the time

All I can say is, iive learnt many things from this thread, cheers strike.

Enough Ctb bashin, cheers all


Taz

Heh... there will NEVER be an end to Ctb bashing

But hey, it's good that you learned something new from the thread - that is, after all, the point of the forums

Yeah well maybe if you weren't such a di... oh, you already admitted it wouldn't end :P Shucks, no point in getting you needlessly worked up then

I like answering Linux questions from relative newbies, that's why I was big at http://www.linuxnewbie.org (I was, and still am, technically, a moderator there ). Unfortunately, it seems that everyone who finds their way to LNO these days is of the thought school of "no I don't have to look for my own answer anywhere, you just have to give it to me". So, I more or less left It's good to see an inquisitive and willing to learn community though

Unfortunately, it's quite a paradigm shift from the Windows world to the *nix world. Some people just get wrapped up in the gears and crushed... (that was a pretty stupid analogy...)

I mean, think about it... when's the last time you ever used a .chm in Windoze to find an answer to a problem? I NEVER have. When something breaks in Windoze, which is more likely: you'll get help from the overflowing cups of the Windoze community.. or you'll ignore it because it is nigh impossible to hunt the solution down somewhere? Hmmm.. definitely 2.

You go from a world that has absolutely NO information to a world that has absolutely TOO MUCH information and it's just too hard to absorb it all without guidance or a helluva lot of free time. I'm not really very accomplished in Linux. I can use it. I can set up and run Apache and perl and php and mysql and postgresql. Hey... wow.. I've scratched the surface of the system.. woohoo! Unfortunately, however, most people see Linux as something to jump into because it's some sort of fad, and those are the people that have a tendency to repeatedly ask the same stupid questions over and over again without trying to help themselves. I've found that giving a snappy answer to a stupid question is a nice, if heartless, way to weed out people who aren't really interested in learning. If they really want to learn, they'll remember to try and help themselves first next time. If not, they'll throw a hissy fit and seek refuge under Windoze again because it's so familiar and they didn't really feel like learning *nix anyway.

etones came back though, so it would appear that, at least at the moment, he/she can become a productive member of the community with a lil learning. Applaudable indeed as that type of person is few and far between it sometimes seems.

just to reel us back in to the original question, the answer could have been found from the start.

if you know that there is a command like 'where', then apropos will return all similar command names eg:

christo@alexis $ apropos where
dl_find_symbol_anywhere() [DynaLoader] (3) - routines used by DynaLoader modules
newsfeeds (5) - determine where Usenet articles get sent
whereami_applet (1) - Where Am I? applet for the GNOME panel
whereis (1) - locate the binary, source, and manual page files for a command

and there is your answer.

Apropos is really useful if you know you need to use 'man', but you don't quite know what you are looking for.

Try the following as tasters: [it will also show you a bit how apropos works]

#apropos network
#apropos kernel
#apropos editor
#apropos browser
#apropos apropos

have fun,
christo