The whereis command is used to display various details associated with a command. For example, when entering whereis ls the following output is displayed:ls: /bin/ls /usr/share/man/man1/ls.1.gz /usr/ share/man/man1p/ls.1p.gz.
Where /bin/ls indicates the location of the ls command and /usr/ share/man/man1/ls.1.gz /usr/share/man/man1p/ls.1p.gz indicates the location of the man pages for the ls command.
Syntax
The syntax of the whereis command is:
$ whereis [options] [directory name] {file name}
whereis Command Options
The whereis command has several options, as described in the following table.
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| -b | Search only for binaries. |
| -m | Search only for manual sections. |
| -s | Search only for sources. |
| -u | Search for unusual entries. |
If you encounter below error while running the whereis command:
whereis: command not found
you may try installing below package as per your choice of distribution:
| Distribution | Command |
|---|---|
| OS X | brew install util-linux |
| Debian | apt-get install util-linux |
| Ubuntu | apt-get install util-linux |
| Alpine | apk add util-linux |
| Arch Linux | pacman -S util-linux |
| Kali Linux | apt-get install util-linux |
| CentOS | yum install util-linux |
| Fedora | dnf install util-linux |
| Raspbian | apt-get install util-linux |
whereis Command Examples
1. Locate binary, source and man pages for ssh:
# whereis ssh
2. Locate binary and man pages for ls:
# whereis -bm ls
3. Locate source of gcc and man pages for Git:
# whereis -s gcc -m git
4. Locate binaries for gcc in `/usr/bin/` only:
# whereis -b -B /usr/bin/ -f gcc
5. Locate unusual binaries (those that have more or less than one binary on the system):
# whereis -u *
6. Locate binaries that have unusual manual entries (binaries that have more or less than one manual installed):
# whereis -u -m *
Conclusion
The whereis command attempts to locate the given files by searching a hardcoded list of directories. It can find executables, documentation, and source code. whereis is somewhat quirky because its list of directories might not include the ones you need.