Find out which application is running when started from Windows command prompt

Question

Due to the number of directories you can put into your %PATH% environment variable it's very easy to have unintentional conflicts between application names. I swore I've come across this tip before, but I can't locate it anywhere. Is there way way at the command prompt to see the directory where the application is located in? For example, I'm looking for something like the following:

C:\> xcopy
Invalid number of parameters
0 File(s) copied

C:\> **SOME_COMMAND** xcopy
C:\Windows\System32\xcopy.exe

Answer 1

A little heavy, but if you like the command line in windows you owe it to yourself to try Cygwin. Place it's \bin folder on your PATH and you'll have a whole host of great tools, not least which, which tells you exactly which file you'd be executing :)

(And yes, I realise the irony of adding to your PATH to help with having too much there)

edit: This may also be appropriate.

Answer 2

Where.exe is the Windows equivalent of whereis on unices. If you are using Windows Server 2003+ or Vista+, this tool installs to %windir%/System32. Using "where" in the command shell (cmd.exe) shows results in path search order:

C:\> where where
C:\Windows\System32\where.exe

Keep in mind that PowerShell typically aliases 'where' to Where-Object, so you just need to include '.exe' when calling where from PowerShell:

C:\> where.exe where
C:\Windows\System32\where.exe

Also see Windows equivalent of whereis?

Answer 3

Here is a simple bath file which will do what you want.

@for %%e in (%PATHEXT%) do @for %%i in (%1%%e) do @if NOT "%%~$PATH:i"=="" echo %%~$PATH:i

whereis xcopy - works whereis xcopy.exe - will not work

Hope it helps (somewhat)

Regards

Answer 4

Based on both Mick's answer and Phoshi's I came up with the solution I was looking for. I created an AutoIt script that loops through all the PATHEXT's and PATH's to find the first location where the passed parameter is located at. It handles both extension-less as well as extension-full parameters. It first searches the local working directory, then the environment variables. As far as everything I've read, this is how Windows performs it's lookup for the command as well. Here's the script:

If $CmdLine[0] > 0 Then
    $commandToFind = $CmdLine[1]
    $matchFound = false
    $foundPath = ""
    $pathEnvironmentVariable = EnvGet("PATH")
    $pathDirectories = StringSplit($pathEnvironmentVariable, ";", 2)
    $pathExtensionsEnvironmentVariable = EnvGet("PATHEXT")
    $pathExtensions = StringSplit($pathExtensionsEnvironmentVariable, ";", 2)

    ; Search the local directory first for the file
    If FileExists($commandToFind) Then
        $matchFound = true
        $foundPath = @WorkingDir & "\" & $commandToFind
    EndIf

    For $pathExtension In $pathExtensions
        $fullPath = @WorkingDir & "\" & $commandToFind & StringLower($pathExtension)
        If FileExists($fullPath) Then
            $matchFound = true
            $foundPath = $fullPath
            ExitLoop
        EndIF
    Next

    If Not $matchFound == true Then
        ; Loop through all the individual directories located in the PATH environment variable
        For $pathDirectory In $pathDirectories
            If FileExists($pathDirectory) Then
                $pathWithoutExtension = $pathDirectory & "\" & $commandToFind

                ; Check if the command exists in the current path. Most likely the parameter had the extension passed in
                If FileExists($pathWithoutExtension) Then
                    $matchFound = true
                    $foundPath = $pathWithoutExtension
                    ExitLoop
                EndIf

                If Not $matchFound == true Then
                    ; Loop through all possible system extensions to see if the file exists.
                    For $pathExtension In $pathExtensions
                        $fullPath = $pathWithoutExtension & StringLower($pathExtension)
                        If FileExists($fullPath) Then
                            $matchFound = true
                            $foundPath = $fullPath
                            ExitLoop
                        EndIf
                    Next
                EndIf

                If $matchFound == true Then
                    ExitLoop
                EndIf
            EndIf
        Next
    EndIf
    If $matchFound == true Then
        ConsoleWrite("Located at " & $foundPath & @CRLF)
    Else
        ConsoleWriteError("Unable to locate the command" & @CRLF)
    EndIf
EndIf

To get it to work, you need to run it through the Aut2exe.exe program that comes with AutoIt (shortcut is titled Compile Script to .exe) and check the "Console?" checkbox when compiling it. I just compile it to a file called "which.exe" that I toss in an existing path directory (like C:\Windows\System32).

Answer 5

The UNIX GNU tools are available in Windows ports, you do not have to go through the pain of scripting it as above. The which command works when given xcopy or xcopy.exe or other executables including BAT files. These can be downloaded from:

http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages.html

They are very handy.