bash Cookbook

Finding a File Using a List of Possible Locations

Problem

You need to execute, source, or read a file, but it may be located in a number of different places in or outside of the $PATH.

Solution

If you are going to source the file and it’s located somewhere on the $PATH, just source it. bash’s built-in source command (also known by the shorter-to-type but harder-to-read POSIX name “.”) will search the $PATH if the sourcepath shell option is set, which it is by default:

$ source myfile

If you want to execute a file only if you know it exists in the $PATH and is executable, and you have bash version 2.05b or higher, use type -P to search the $PATH. Unlike the which command, type -P only produces output when it finds the file, which makes it much easier to use in this case:

LS=$(type -P ls)
[ -x $LS ] && $LS

# --OR--

LS=$(type -P ls)
if [ -x $LS ]; then
   : commands involving $LS here
fi

If you need to look in a variety of locations, possibly including the $PATH, use a for loop. To search the $PATH, use the variable substitution operator ${variable/pattern/ replacement} to replace the : separator with a space, and then use for as usual. To search the $PATH and other possible locations, just list them:

for path in ${PATH//:/ }; do
    [ -x "$path/ls" ] && $path/ls
done

# --OR--

for path in ${PATH//:/ } /opt/foo/bin /opt/bar/bin; do
    [ -x "$path/ls" ] && $path/ls
done

If the file is not in the $PATH, but could be in a list of locations, possibly even under different names, list the entire path and name: ...