whereis command#

The whereis command is used to locate files. This command searches for files that meet certain conditions in specific directories. It can only be used to locate binary files, source code files, and man manual pages. For general file locating, the locate or find command should be used.

Syntax#

whereis [options] file

Options#

• -b: Search only for binary files.
• -B <dirs>: Change or limit the location where whereis searches for binary files.
• -m: Search only for source files.
• -M <dirs>: Change or limit the location where whereis searches for manual sections.
• -s: Search only for source files.
• -S <dirs>: Change or limit the location where whereis searches for sources.
• -f: Do not display the pathname in front of the file name.
• -u: Search for unusual entries. If a file does not have an entry for each requested type, the file is considered unusual, meaning it is searching for files that do not contain the specified type.
• -l: Output the effective search path.

Examples#

List the directories where the whereis command searches. By default, whereis searches for files in the hardcoded paths listed in the environment variables.

whereis -l
# bin: /usr/bin
# bin: /usr/sbin
# bin: /usr/lib
# ...

Retrieve information about the bash command. The output includes information about the bash command, its binary file path /bin/bash, source file /etc/bash.bashrc, and manual page /usr/share/man/man1/bash.1.gz. If the command being searched for does not exist, whereis will only print the command name.

whereis bash
# bash: /bin/bash /etc/bash.bashrc /usr/share/man/man1/bash.1.gz

Query netcat and uptime commands simultaneously using the whereis command. The output will contain information about the netcat and uptime commands.

whereis netcat uptime
# netcat: /bin/netcat /usr/share/man/man1/netcat.1.gz
# uptime: /usr/bin/uptime /usr/share/man/man1/uptime.1.gz

Daily Question#

References#