whereis

whereis is a command on Unix and Unix-like operating systems used to locate some special files of a command like the binary file, source and manual page files.

Syntax[]

The whereis man page provides the following sample usage:

% # Find all files in /usr/bin which are not documented in /usr/man/man1 with source in /usr/src:
% cd /usr/bin
% whereis -u -M /usr/man/man1 -S /usr/src -f *

Analogs[]

The Unix type command is similar, but it identifies aliases.

Modern versions of Microsoft Windows feature a similar command: where.^[1]

The origin may Multics where.

References[]

^ Bhardwaj, Pawan K. (2006). "Locating Files with the Where Command". How to Cheat at Windows System Administration Using Command Line Scripts. How to Cheat. Rockland, Massachusetts: Syngress. p. 207. ISBN 978-0-08-050826-9. Retrieved 2016-07-05. […] the Where command […] is equivalent to using the Search option in the Start menu.

External links[]

man page of whereis command
Command whereis – 10 practical examples Archived 2020-10-27 at the Wayback Machine

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[1] Bhardwaj, Pawan K. (2006). "Locating Files with the Where Command". How to Cheat at Windows System Administration Using Command Line Scripts. How to Cheat. Rockland, Massachusetts: Syngress. p. 207. ISBN 978-0-08-050826-9. Retrieved 2016-07-05. […] the Where command […] is equivalent to using the Search option in the Start menu.

[1]

v t Unix command-line interface programs and shell builtins
File system	cat chmod chown chgrp cksum cmp cp dd du df file fuser ln ls mkdir mv pax pwd rm rmdir split tee touch type umask
Processes	at bg crontab fg kill nice ps time
User environment	env exit logname mesg talk tput uname who write
Text processing	awk basename comm csplit cut diff dirname ed ex fold head iconv join m4 more nl paste patch printf sed sort strings tail tr uniq vi wc xargs
Shell builtins	alias cd echo test unset wait
Searching	find grep
Documentation	man
Software development	ar ctags lex make nm strip yacc
Miscellaneous	bc cal expr lp od sleep true and false
Categories Standard Unix programs Unix SUS2008 utilities List

whereis

Contents

Syntax[]

Analogs[]

See also[]

References[]

External links[]