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In Linux, we have the "which" command to find out the path of an executable.
What is its Windows equivalent? Is there any PowerShell command for doing that?
What is Windows' equivalent of the "which" command in Unix? Is there an equivalent PowerShell command?
Answers
91
Some versions of Windows (I think Windows 2003 and up) have the where command:
c:\>where ping
C:\Windows\System32\PING.EXE
Randy Levy
Posted 2010-11-05T02:55:43.323
Reputation: 1 029
8This only works in cmd, not in PowerShell (in my experience) – Thomas – 2014-10-13T15:15:14.047
where /r c:\ fileName adding the /r c:\ allowed me to perform a recursive search starting at the root of the C drive using Windows 7 Professional it seems to not be in https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/4/html/Step_by_Step_Guide/ap-doslinux.html – CrandellWS – 2015-09-25T09:09:14.253
8in Powershell you should say where.exe ping because where is by default aliased to Where-Object cmdlet which is completely different story – maoizm – 2018-05-27T11:18:55.760
where.exe explicitly rather than where works for me in PowerShell – drkvogel – 2019-09-26T15:35:03.003
5where work for me in Windows 7 – Nam G VU – 2011-10-10T16:30:44.637
40
Yes, Get-Command will find all commands including executables:
PS\> Get-Command ipconfig
If you want to limit the commands to just executables:
PS\> Get-Command -CommandType Application
Will find all exes in your path. There is an alias for interactive use:
PS\> gcm net* -CommandType Application
To get the path of an executable, you can use the Path property of the returned object. For example:
PS\> (Get-Command notepad.exe).Path
For more info, run man Get-Command -full.
user10404
Posted 2010-11-05T02:55:43.323
Reputation: 571
4
where.exe explicitly rather than where works for me in PowerShell:
PS C:\Users\birdc> where ping
PS C:\Users\birdc> where.exe ping
C:\Windows\System32\PING.EXE
drkvogel
Posted 2010-11-05T02:55:43.323
Reputation: 271
Works on Windows 10 1903. – Ultrasonic54321 – 2019-09-26T15:41:53.990
In PowerShell? I'm on Windows 10 Pro 1903, and where ping gives me nothing in PowerShell. – drkvogel – 2019-09-26T15:53:13.413
Sorry I was unclear. I meant where.exe. – Ultrasonic54321 – 2019-09-26T16:21:51.990
2
If you want to make it short, create a one line which.cmd file with the content
echo %~$PATH:1
This will search the first parameter (%1) fed to the script and display the full path of found file. Good place to put this script in windows 10 is %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\WindowsApps\which.cmd
And you get your which command in path.
c:\>which cmd.exe
c:\>echo C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe
C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe
Manu
Posted 2010-11-05T02:55:43.323
Reputation: 21
2
In addition to user10404, the help command will work on aliases, so you can use the same command name (gcm) for help and interactive use:
help gcm -Parameter *
# or
man gcm -Par *
yzorg
Posted 2010-11-05T02:55:43.323
Reputation: 711
See also http://stackoverflow.com/questions/304319/is-there-an-equivalent-of-which-on-the-windows-command-line
– ysap – 2015-05-08T10:17:30.703Is there an equivalent of 'which' on the Windows command line? – phuclv – 2016-05-04T04:21:18.653