whereis

Locate binary, source, and man page files

TLDR

Locate binary, source, and man pages for SSH

$ whereis ssh

Locate binary and man pages only for ls

$ whereis -bm ls

Locate source of gcc and man pages for Git

$ whereis -s gcc -m git

Locate binaries for gcc in /usr/bin/ only

$ whereis -b -B /usr/bin/ -f gcc

Locate unusual binaries (more or less than one binary)

$ whereis -u *

Locate binaries with unusual manual entries

$ whereis -u -m *

SYNOPSIS

whereis [-bmsuf] [-BMS directory... -f] name...

whereis locates the binary, source, and manual page files for a command by searching a set of standard locations. Unlike which, it searches predefined directories rather than the PATH variable, and can find source and documentation files.The command uses hardcoded directory lists that may include /bin, /sbin, /usr/bin, /usr/share/man, /usr/src, and similar system directories. Use -l to see the actual search paths on your system.

PARAMETERS

-b

Search only for binaries

-m

Search only for manual sections

-s

Search only for sources

-u

Search for unusual entries (commands with more than one binary, or no manual)

-B list

Limit binary search to specified directories

-M list

Limit manual search to specified directories

-S list

Limit source search to specified directories

-f

Terminate directory list (required when using -B, -M, or -S)

-l

Output list of effective search paths

CAVEATS

May not find binaries in non-standard locations (use which for PATH-based lookup). Source directories are often empty on binary distributions. Results depend on the compiled-in search paths which vary between distributions.

HISTORY

Originated in 3BSD Unix (1979) at UC Berkeley. One of the early Berkeley additions to Unix for locating program components. Part of util-linux on modern Linux systems.