How to check $PATH for installed software in a bash script?












0















Recently one of my bash scripts failed because cmake and zip / unzip were not installed on a system.



What would be a convenient way to check for installed packages in $PATH env?



I would like to check $PATH directly for cmake and the like since my script is running on Debian, Ubuntu, Arch, and so on. Thus, I would prefer to not use a package manager, because I would have to implement it several times using dpkg, pacman, ... based on the distribution the script is currently executed on.






bash path







share|improve this question























  • If you're just looking for tools like cmake and zip then those are installed by the package manager and the binaries will be in /usr/bin unless you built them from source and put them elsewhere. If you installed them via the package manager then you can just use the package tool like rpm or dpkg-query to search for the installed packages.

    – Nasir Riley
    4 hours ago











  • @NasirRiley yes, but the problem is that my script is running on different distributions. Hence, I would like to avoid implementing that with rpm, dpkg, pacman, ... It is quite cumbersome to maintain this by hand so I would prefer to not use different package managers.

    – daniel451
    4 hours ago
















0















Recently one of my bash scripts failed because cmake and zip / unzip were not installed on a system.



What would be a convenient way to check for installed packages in $PATH env?



I would like to check $PATH directly for cmake and the like since my script is running on Debian, Ubuntu, Arch, and so on. Thus, I would prefer to not use a package manager, because I would have to implement it several times using dpkg, pacman, ... based on the distribution the script is currently executed on.






bash path







share|improve this question























  • If you're just looking for tools like cmake and zip then those are installed by the package manager and the binaries will be in /usr/bin unless you built them from source and put them elsewhere. If you installed them via the package manager then you can just use the package tool like rpm or dpkg-query to search for the installed packages.

    – Nasir Riley
    4 hours ago











  • @NasirRiley yes, but the problem is that my script is running on different distributions. Hence, I would like to avoid implementing that with rpm, dpkg, pacman, ... It is quite cumbersome to maintain this by hand so I would prefer to not use different package managers.

    – daniel451
    4 hours ago














0












0








0


1






Recently one of my bash scripts failed because cmake and zip / unzip were not installed on a system.



What would be a convenient way to check for installed packages in $PATH env?



I would like to check $PATH directly for cmake and the like since my script is running on Debian, Ubuntu, Arch, and so on. Thus, I would prefer to not use a package manager, because I would have to implement it several times using dpkg, pacman, ... based on the distribution the script is currently executed on.






bash path







share|improve this question














Recently one of my bash scripts failed because cmake and zip / unzip were not installed on a system.



What would be a convenient way to check for installed packages in $PATH env?



I would like to check $PATH directly for cmake and the like since my script is running on Debian, Ubuntu, Arch, and so on. Thus, I would prefer to not use a package manager, because I would have to implement it several times using dpkg, pacman, ... based on the distribution the script is currently executed on.






bash path




bash path






share|improve this question













share|improve this question











share|improve this question




share|improve this question










asked 4 hours ago









daniel451daniel451

4253721




4253721













  • If you're just looking for tools like cmake and zip then those are installed by the package manager and the binaries will be in /usr/bin unless you built them from source and put them elsewhere. If you installed them via the package manager then you can just use the package tool like rpm or dpkg-query to search for the installed packages.

    – Nasir Riley
    4 hours ago











  • @NasirRiley yes, but the problem is that my script is running on different distributions. Hence, I would like to avoid implementing that with rpm, dpkg, pacman, ... It is quite cumbersome to maintain this by hand so I would prefer to not use different package managers.

    – daniel451
    4 hours ago



















  • If you're just looking for tools like cmake and zip then those are installed by the package manager and the binaries will be in /usr/bin unless you built them from source and put them elsewhere. If you installed them via the package manager then you can just use the package tool like rpm or dpkg-query to search for the installed packages.

    – Nasir Riley
    4 hours ago











  • @NasirRiley yes, but the problem is that my script is running on different distributions. Hence, I would like to avoid implementing that with rpm, dpkg, pacman, ... It is quite cumbersome to maintain this by hand so I would prefer to not use different package managers.

    – daniel451
    4 hours ago

















If you're just looking for tools like cmake and zip then those are installed by the package manager and the binaries will be in /usr/bin unless you built them from source and put them elsewhere. If you installed them via the package manager then you can just use the package tool like rpm or dpkg-query to search for the installed packages.

– Nasir Riley
4 hours ago





If you're just looking for tools like cmake and zip then those are installed by the package manager and the binaries will be in /usr/bin unless you built them from source and put them elsewhere. If you installed them via the package manager then you can just use the package tool like rpm or dpkg-query to search for the installed packages.

– Nasir Riley
4 hours ago













@NasirRiley yes, but the problem is that my script is running on different distributions. Hence, I would like to avoid implementing that with rpm, dpkg, pacman, ... It is quite cumbersome to maintain this by hand so I would prefer to not use different package managers.

– daniel451
4 hours ago





@NasirRiley yes, but the problem is that my script is running on different distributions. Hence, I would like to avoid implementing that with rpm, dpkg, pacman, ... It is quite cumbersome to maintain this by hand so I would prefer to not use different package managers.

– daniel451
4 hours ago










1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes


















4














As mentioned in "Why not use "which"? What to use then?", the most portable way of testing whether a command is found in $PATH or not is through: 



if command -v given-command > /dev/null 2>&1; then

  echo given-command is available

else

  echo given-command is not available

fi





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    1 Answer
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    active

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    1 Answer
    1






    active

    oldest

    votes









    active

    oldest

    votes






    active

    oldest

    votes









    4














    As mentioned in "Why not use "which"? What to use then?", the most portable way of testing whether a command is found in $PATH or not is through: 



    if command -v given-command > /dev/null 2>&1; then
    
  echo given-command is available
    
else
    
  echo given-command is not available
    
fi





    share|improve this answer






























      4














      As mentioned in "Why not use "which"? What to use then?", the most portable way of testing whether a command is found in $PATH or not is through: 



      if command -v given-command > /dev/null 2>&1; then
      
  echo given-command is available
      
else
      
  echo given-command is not available
      
fi





      share|improve this answer




























        4












        4








        4







        As mentioned in "Why not use "which"? What to use then?", the most portable way of testing whether a command is found in $PATH or not is through: 



        if command -v given-command > /dev/null 2>&1; then
        
  echo given-command is available
        
else
        
  echo given-command is not available
        
fi





        share|improve this answer















        As mentioned in "Why not use "which"? What to use then?", the most portable way of testing whether a command is found in $PATH or not is through: 



        if command -v given-command > /dev/null 2>&1; then
        
  echo given-command is available
        
else
        
  echo given-command is not available
        
fi






        share|improve this answer














        share|improve this answer



        share|improve this answer








        edited 3 hours ago









        Jeff Schaller

        43.2k1159138




        43.2k1159138










        answered 4 hours ago









        KusalanandaKusalananda

        134k17255418




        134k17255418






























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