[colug-432] Path of a program

[Rob Funk]

On Thursday, March 10, 2011 08:55:21 pm Steve VanSlyck wrote:
> It was good to have this link. It got me to update java - which was a
> bit of an exercise but it's all working now.
> 
> I have found that "which program" doesn't necessarily reveal the
> executable's path and that "dr -S" kinda tells me too much information
> by revealing subdirectories without telling their path.

Two other useful commands of that ilk are "type" and "whereis -b".

> Is there a better way other than elbow grease to find out what directory
> a program is really installed into?

On dpkg-based systems (Ubuntu, Debian), "dpkg -L packagename" tells you every 
file that the package installed. I often pipe that into "grep bin/" when I'm 
looking for the executables.

If I remember correctly, the rpm equivalent is "rpm -ql packagename", but my 
rpm memory is fuzzy and I don't have such a system to check anymore.