As I sometimes have path problems, where one of my own cmd scripts is hidden (shadowed) by another program (earlier on the path), I would like to be able to find the full path to a program on the Windows command line, given just its name.
Is there an equivalent to the UNIX command 'which'?
On UNIX, which command prints the full path of the given command to easily find and repair these shadowing problems.
I suggest you use Windows PowerShell's Get-Command cmdlet, as described in another answer to this question by Marawan Mamdouh.
If you're like me and don't use PowerShell, use Windows' where.exe program. Like Unix which, it shows the full path that would match the filename-only command you type:
C:\> where edit
C:\Windows\System32\edit.com
Unlike which, where.exe can show all the paths that match the given filename, though only the first one shown would normally be used when launching a program:
C:\> where notepad
C:\Windows\System32\notepad.exe
C:\Windows\notepad.exe
where.exe tries to follow the Windows command shell CMD.EXE's rules for what file names and paths work as commands. That includes the %PATHEXT% environment variable and the ability to open non-program data files using their filenames with extensions:
C:\> set pathext
PATHEXT=.COM;.EXE;.BAT;.CMD;.VBS;.VBE;.JS;.JSE;.WSF;.WSH;.MSC
C:\> where Enterprise.xml slmgr
C:\Windows\Enterprise.xml
C:\Windows\System32\slmgr.vbs
where.exe will even accept wildcards, so where nt*.exe finds all files in your %PATH% and current directory whose names start with nt and end with .exe:
C:\> where nt*.exe
C:\Windows\System32\ntoskrnl.exe
C:\Windows\System32\ntprint.exe
C:\Windows\System32\ntvdm.exe
Check the online docs for where.exe or run where.exe /? for more help.
Notes:
where.exe as where.exe, never where. Plain where in PowerShell is an alias for the Where-Object cmdlet, which does something very different from where.exe / which.where.exe is available in Windows Server 2003 and later. Sorry if you're still on Windows XP.
where.exe is not a shell builtin, you need to have %windir%\system32 on your %PATH% - which may not be the case, as using where suggests that you may be working on problems with your path!
Jul 8, 2015 at 9:00
where.exe may return multiple values, in which case the first/top most one will be invoked. C:\Windows\System32> where.exe sqlcmd.exe c:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Tools\Binn\SQLCMD.EXE C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Binn\SQLCMD.EXE C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\Client SDK\ODBC\110\Tools\Binn\SQLCMD.EXE
Nov 13, 2018 at 13:45
While later versions of Windows have a where command, you can also do this with Windows XP by using the environment variable modifiers, as follows:
c:\> for %i in (cmd.exe) do @echo. %~$PATH:i
C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe
c:\> for %i in (python.exe) do @echo. %~$PATH:i
C:\Python25\python.exe
You don't need any extra tools and it's not limited to PATH since you can substitute any environment variable (in the path format, of course) that you wish to use.
And, if you want one that can handle all the extensions in PATHEXT (as Windows itself does), this one does the trick:
@echo off
setlocal enableextensions enabledelayedexpansion
:: Needs an argument.
if "x%1"=="x" (
echo Usage: which ^<progName^>
goto :end
)
:: First try the unadorned filenmame.
set fullspec=
call :find_it %1
:: Then try all adorned filenames in order.
set mypathext=!pathext!
:loop1
:: Stop if found or out of extensions.
if "x!mypathext!"=="x" goto :loop1end
:: Get the next extension and try it.
for /f "delims=;" %%j in ("!mypathext!") do set myext=%%j
call :find_it %1!myext!
:: Remove the extension (not overly efficient but it works).
:loop2
if not "x!myext!"=="x" (
set myext=!myext:~1!
set mypathext=!mypathext:~1!
goto :loop2
)
if not "x!mypathext!"=="x" set mypathext=!mypathext:~1!
goto :loop1
:loop1end
:end
endlocal
goto :eof
:: Function to find and print a file in the path.
:find_it
for %%i in (%1) do set fullspec=%%~$PATH:i
if not "x!fullspec!"=="x" @echo. !fullspec!
goto :eof
It actually returns all possibilities but you can tweak it quite easily for specific search rules.
which back in W95/DOS days amdittedly, the search order was - current dir, then each path dir, for cmd.com, then cmd.exe, then cmd.bat So, even cmd.bat in current dir is executed befroe cmd.exe soemwhere in path
@echo off for %%i in (%1) do @echo. %%~$PATH:%i To add it to an alias.bat script that you load everytime you run cmd.exe (put the above script in a new directory called C:\usr\aliases): DOSKEY which=C:\usr\aliases\which.bat $* Then you can make a script to launch cmd.exe with the alias.bat file: cmd.exe /K E:\usr\aliases\alias.bat
Under PowerShell, Get-Command will find executables anywhere in $Env:PATH.
$ Get-Command eventvwr
CommandType Name Definition
----------- ---- ----------
Application eventvwr.exe c:\windows\system32\eventvwr.exe
Application eventvwr.msc c:\windows\system32\eventvwr.msc
And since powershell let's you define aliases, which can be defined like so.
$ sal which gcm # short form of `Set-Alias which Get-Command`
$ which foo
...
PowerShell commands are not just executable files (.exe, .ps1, etc). They can also be cmdlets, functions, aliases, custom executable suffixes set in $Env:PATHEXT, etc. Get-Command is able to find and list all of these commands (quite akin to Bash's type -a foo). This alone makes it better than where.exe, which.exe, etc which are typically limited to finding just executables.
$ gcm *disk*
CommandType Name Version Source
----------- ---- ------- ------
Alias Disable-PhysicalDiskIndication 2.0.0.0 Storage
Alias Enable-PhysicalDiskIndication 2.0.0.0 Storage
Function Add-PhysicalDisk 2.0.0.0 Storage
Function Add-VirtualDiskToMaskingSet 2.0.0.0 Storage
Function Clear-Disk 2.0.0.0 Storage
Cmdlet Get-PmemDisk 1.0.0.0 PersistentMemory
Cmdlet New-PmemDisk 1.0.0.0 PersistentMemory
Cmdlet Remove-PmemDisk 1.0.0.0 PersistentMemory
Application diskmgmt.msc 0.0.0.0 C:\WINDOWS\system32\diskmgmt.msc
Application diskpart.exe 10.0.17... C:\WINDOWS\system32\diskpart.exe
Application diskperf.exe 10.0.17... C:\WINDOWS\system32\diskperf.exe
Application diskraid.exe 10.0.17... C:\WINDOWS\system32\diskraid.exe
...
Unlike UNIX, where executables are files with the executable (+x) bit set, executables on windows are files present in one of the directories specified in the $PATH env. variable whose filename suffixes are named in the $PATHEXT env. variable (defaults to .COM;.EXE;.BAT;.CMD;.VBS;.VBE;.JS;.JSE;.WSF;.WSH;.MSC;.CPL).
As Get-Command also honours this env. variable, it can be extended to list custom executables. e.g.
$ $Env:PATHEXT="$Env:PATHEXT;.dll;.ps1;.psm1;.py" # temporary assignment, only for this shell's process
$ gcm user32,kernel32,*WASM*,*http*py
CommandType Name Version Source
----------- ---- ------- ------
ExternalScript Invoke-WASMProfiler.ps1 C:\WINDOWS\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Invoke-WASMProfiler.ps1
Application http-server.py 0.0.0.0 C:\Users\ME\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps\http-server.py
Application kernel32.dll 10.0.17... C:\WINDOWS\system32\kernel32.dll
Application user32.dll 10.0.17... C:\WINDOWS\system32\user32.dll
See Get-Command for more options and examples.
.BAT, .CMD, etc), they are considered executable because their extensions are named in the PATHEXT variable (which by default is PATHEXT=.COM;.EXE;.BAT;.CMD;.VBS;.VBE;.JS;.JSE;.WSF;.WSH;.MSC;.CPL). Other executable types (e.g. .py, .rb, etc) can be added by adding the file extension in and creating an executable association with assoc/ftype - e.g. docs.python.org/3.3/using/…
In Windows PowerShell:
set-alias which where.exe
If you have PowerShell installed (which I recommend), you can use the following command as a rough equivalent (substitute programName for your executable's name):
($Env:Path).Split(";") | Get-ChildItem -filter programName*
More is here: My Manwich! PowerShell Which
($Env:Path).Split(";") | Get-ChildItem -filter programName* is so easy to type... ;-)
Nov 30, 2014 at 8:56
gcm answer would be far better use of PowerShell today: stackoverflow.com/a/27140194/5340149
Jun 16, 2020 at 19:32
The GnuWin32 tools have which, along with a whole slew of other Unix tools.
In Windows CMD which calls where:
$ where php
C:\Program Files\PHP\php.exe
where pip and I got the three results. I am not sure which one is the executed one.
Jan 28, 2021 at 14:59
Cygwin is a solution. If you don't mind using a third-party solution, then Cygwin is the way to go.
Cygwin gives you the comfort of *nix in the Windows environment (and you can use it in your Windows command shell, or use a *nix shell of your choice). It gives you a whole host of *nix commands (like which) for Windows, and you can just include that directory in your PATH.
In PowerShell, it is gcm, which gives formatted information about other commands. If you want to retrieve only path to executable, use .Source.
For instance: gcm git or (gcm git).Source
Tidbits:
gcm is an alias of Get-Command cmdlet.Set-Alias which gcm and use it like: (which git).Source.
I have a function in my PowerShell profile named 'which'
function which {
get-command $args[0]| format-list
}
Here's what the output looks like:
PS C:\Users\fez> which python
Name : python.exe
CommandType : Application
Definition : C:\Python27\python.exe
Extension : .exe
Path : C:\Python27\python.exe
FileVersionInfo : File: C:\Python27\python.exe
InternalName:
OriginalFilename:
FileVersion:
FileDescription:
Product:
ProductVersion:
Debug: False
Patched: False
PreRelease: False
PrivateBuild: False
SpecialBuild: False
Language:
> get-command app.exe | format-list worked perfectly!
Jul 16, 2018 at 9:30
Go get unxutils from here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/unxutils/
gold on windows platforms, puts all the nice unix utilities on a standard windows DOS. Been using it for years.
It has a 'which' included. Note that it's case sensitive though.
NB: to install it explode the zip somewhere and add ...\UnxUtils\usr\local\wbin\ to your system path env variable.
. for the \r. It's a 99% solution though for sure!
Jul 28, 2015 at 20:01
If you can find a free Pascal compiler, you can compile this. At least it works and shows the algorithm necessary.
program Whence (input, output);
Uses Dos, my_funk;
Const program_version = '1.00';
program_date = '17 March 1994';
VAR path_str : string;
command_name : NameStr;
command_extension : ExtStr;
command_directory : DirStr;
search_dir : DirStr;
result : DirStr;
procedure Check_for (file_name : string);
{ Check existence of the passed parameter. If exists, then state so }
{ and exit. }
begin
if Fsearch(file_name, '') <> '' then
begin
WriteLn('DOS command = ', Fexpand(file_name));
Halt(0); { structured ? whaddayamean structured ? }
end;
end;
function Get_next_dir : DirStr;
{ Returns the next directory from the path variable, truncating the }
{ variable every time. Implicit input (but not passed as parameter) }
{ is, therefore, path_str }
var semic_pos : Byte;
begin
semic_pos := Pos(';', path_str);
if (semic_pos = 0) then
begin
Get_next_dir := '';
Exit;
end;
result := Copy(Path_str, 1, (semic_pos - 1)); { return result }
{ Hmm! although *I* never reference a Root drive (my directory tree) }
{ is 1/2 way structured), some network logon software which I run }
{ does (it adds Z:\ to the path). This means that I have to allow }
{ path entries with & without a terminating backslash. I'll delete }
{ anysuch here since I always add one in the main program below. }
if (Copy(result, (Length(result)), 1) = '\') then
Delete(result, Length(result), 1);
path_str := Copy(path_str,(semic_pos + 1),
(length(path_str) - semic_pos));
Get_next_dir := result;
end; { Of function get_next_dir }
begin
{ The following is a kludge which makes the function Get_next_dir easier }
{ to implement. By appending a semi-colon to the end of the path }
{ Get_next_dir doesn't need to handle the special case of the last entry }
{ which normally doesn't have a semic afterwards. It may be a kludge, }
{ but it's a documented kludge (you might even call it a refinement). }
path_str := GetEnv('Path') + ';';
if (paramCount = 0) then
begin
WriteLn('Whence: V', program_version, ' from ', program_date);
Writeln;
WriteLn('Usage: WHENCE command[.extension]');
WriteLn;
WriteLn('Whence is a ''find file''type utility witha difference');
Writeln('There are are already more than enough of those :-)');
Write ('Use Whence when you''re not sure where a command which you ');
WriteLn('want to invoke');
WriteLn('actually resides.');
Write ('If you intend to invoke the command with an extension e.g ');
Writeln('"my_cmd.exe param"');
Write ('then invoke Whence with the same extension e.g ');
WriteLn('"Whence my_cmd.exe"');
Write ('otherwise a simple "Whence my_cmd" will suffice; Whence will ');
Write ('then search the current directory and each directory in the ');
Write ('for My_cmd.com, then My_cmd.exe and lastly for my_cmd.bat, ');
Write ('just as DOS does');
Halt(0);
end;
Fsplit(paramStr(1), command_directory, command_name, command_extension);
if (command_directory <> '') then
begin
WriteLn('directory detected *', command_directory, '*');
Halt(0);
end;
if (command_extension <> '') then
begin
path_str := Fsearch(paramstr(1), ''); { Current directory }
if (path_str <> '') then WriteLn('Dos command = "', Fexpand(path_str), '"')
else
begin
path_str := Fsearch(paramstr(1), GetEnv('path'));
if (path_str <> '') then WriteLn('Dos command = "', Fexpand(path_str), '"')
else Writeln('command not found in path.');
end;
end
else
begin
{ O.K, the way it works, DOS looks for a command firstly in the current }
{ directory, then in each directory in the Path. If no extension is }
{ given and several commands of the same name exist, then .COM has }
{ priority over .EXE, has priority over .BAT }
Check_for(paramstr(1) + '.com'); { won't return if file is found }
Check_for(paramstr(1) + '.exe');
Check_for(paramstr(1) + '.bat');
{ Not in current directory, search through path ... }
search_dir := Get_next_dir;
while (search_dir <> '') do
begin
Check_for(search_dir + '\' + paramstr(1) + '.com');
Check_for(search_dir + '\' + paramstr(1) + '.exe');
Check_for(search_dir + '\' + paramstr(1) + '.bat');
search_dir := Get_next_dir;
end;
WriteLn('DOS command not found: ', paramstr(1));
end;
end.
my_funk; is unecessary. Thanks for posting a Pascal program, reminds me of my youth! It is such a pity that Pascal did not evolve.
Not in stock Windows but it is provided by Services for Unix and there are several simple batch scripts floating around that accomplish the same thing such this this one.
You can first install Git from Downloading Git, and then open Git Bash and type:
which app-name
The best version of this I've found on Windows is Joseph Newcomer's "whereis" utility, which is available (with source) from his site.
The article about the development of "whereis" is worth reading.
None of the Win32 ports of Unix which that I could find on the Internet are satistactory, because they all have one or more of these shortcomings:
So I eventually wrote my own which, that suports all the above correctly.
Available there: http://jf.larvoire.free.fr/progs/which.exe
This batch file uses CMD variable handling to find the command that would be executed in the path. Note: that the current directory is always done before the path) and depending on which API call is used other locations are searched before/after the path.
@echo off
echo.
echo PathFind - Finds the first file in in a path
echo ======== = ===== === ===== ==== == == = ====
echo.
echo Searching for %1 in %path%
echo.
set a=%~$PATH:1
If "%a%"=="" (Echo %1 not found) else (echo %1 found at %a%)
See set /? for help.
I am using GOW (GNU on Windows) which is a light version of Cygwin. You can grab it from GitHub here.
GOW (GNU on Windows) is the lightweight alternative to Cygwin. It uses a convenient Windows installer that installs about 130 extremely useful open source UNIX applications compiled as native win32 binaries. It is designed to be as small as possible, about 10 MB, as opposed to Cygwin which can run well over 100 MB depending upon options. - About Description(Brent R. Matzelle)
A screenshot of a list of commands included in GOW:
I have created tool similar to Ned Batchelder:
Searching .dll and .exe files in PATH
While my tool is primarly for searching of various dll versions it shows more info (date, size, version) but it do not use PATHEXT (I hope to update my tool soon).
Just have to post this Windows' one liner batch file:
C:>type wh.cmd
@for %%f in (%*) do for %%e in (%PATHEXT% .dll .lnk) do for %%b in (%%f%%e) do for %%d in (%PATH%) do if exist %%d\%%b echo %%d\%%b
A test:
C:>wh ssh
C:\cygwin64\bin\ssh.EXE
C:\Windows\System32\OpenSSH\\ssh.EXE
Not quite a one-liner if you wrap the code in setlocal enableextensions and endlocal.
For you Windows XP users (who have no where command built-in), I have written a "where like" command as a rubygem called whichr.
To install it, install Ruby.
Then
gem install whichr
Run it like:
C:> whichr cmd_here
TCC and TCC/LE from JPSoft are CMD.EXE replacements that add significant functionality. Relevant to the OP's question, which is a builtin command for TCC family command processors.
I have used the which module from npm for quite a while, and it works very well: https://www.npmjs.com/package/which
It is a great multi platform alternative.
Now I switched to the which that comes with Git. Just add to your path the /usr/bin path from Git, which is usually at C:\Program Files\Git\usr\bin\which.exe. The which binary will be at C:\Program Files\Git\usr\bin\which.exe. It is faster and also works as expected.
If you want to find the source of command, you can use the Get-Command cmdlet or its alias gcm.
you can use Get-Command or its alias gcm directly. For example:
Get-Command python, poetry
or
gcm python, poetry
you will get some thing like this
CommandType Name Version Source
----------- ---- ------- ------
Application python.exe 3.12.15... C:\Program Files\Python312\python.exe
Application poetry.exe 0.0.0.0 C:\Users\xxx\AppData\Roaming\Python\Scripts\poetry.exe
However, if you want to get only to source direct you can use the custom function Get-CommandSource provided below.
function Get-PackageSource {
param (
[string[]]$Packages
)
(Get-Command $Packages).Source
}
# Alias for Get-CommandSource
New-Alias -Name gcms -Value Get-CommandSource
If you have a list of commands and want to quickly identify their sources, you can use the Get-CommandSource function or its alias gcms. For example:
gcms python, poetry
python: C:\Program Files\Python312\python.exe
poetry: C:\Users\xxx\AppData\Roaming\Python\Scripts\poetry.exe
To ensure that the gcms alias is available in future PowerShell sessions, add the alias to the PowerShell profile
notepad.exe $PROFILE
try this
set a=%~$dir:1
If "%for%"=="" (Echo %1 not found) else (echo %1 found at %a%)
It is possible to download all of the UNIX commands compiled for Windows, including which from this GitHub repository: https://github.com/George-Ogden/UNIX
which is not strictly speaking one of them, by any reasonably well-specified definition of "all of".
Here is a function which I made to find executable similar to the Unix command 'WHICH`
app_path_func.cmd:
@ECHO OFF
CLS
FOR /F "skip=2 tokens=1,2* USEBACKQ" %%N IN (`reg query "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\%~1" /t REG_SZ /v "Path"`) DO (
IF /I "%%N" == "Path" (
SET wherepath=%%P%~1
GoTo Found
)
)
FOR /F "tokens=* USEBACKQ" %%F IN (`where.exe %~1`) DO (
SET wherepath=%%F
GoTo Found
)
FOR /F "tokens=* USEBACKQ" %%F IN (`where.exe /R "%PROGRAMFILES%" %~1`) DO (
SET wherepath=%%F
GoTo Found
)
FOR /F "tokens=* USEBACKQ" %%F IN (`where.exe /R "%PROGRAMFILES(x86)%" %~1`) DO (
SET wherepath=%%F
GoTo Found
)
FOR /F "tokens=* USEBACKQ" %%F IN (`where.exe /R "%WINDIR%" %~1`) DO (
SET wherepath=%%F
GoTo Found
)
:Found
SET %2=%wherepath%
:End
Test:
@ECHO OFF
CLS
CALL "app_path_func.cmd" WINWORD.EXE PROGPATH
ECHO %PROGPATH%
PAUSE
Result:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office15\
Press any key to continue . . .
whichcommand in standard Unix. The POSIX utility istype. The C Shell has a which command, and some systems have it as an external executable. For instance, on Debian Linux,whichcomes from a package calleddebutils. This externalwhichdoes not "see" shell built-ins, aliases or functions.typedoes; Bash'stypehas an option to suppress that and just do a path lookup.