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Previous: 44.20 test: Testing Files and Strings Chapter 44
Shell Programming for the Uninitiated
Next: 44.22 Finding a Program Name; Multiple Program Names
 

44.21 Picking a Name for a New Command

When you write a new program or shell script, you'll probably want to be sure that its name doesn't conflict with any other commands on the system. For instance, you might wonder whether there's a command named tscan. You can check by typing one of the commands in the following example. If you get output (besides an error) from one of them, there's probably already a command with the same name. (The type command works on ksh, bash and many Bourne shells; I've shown it with a currency sign ($) prompt.)


which 

whereis 

alias 



% man 1 tscan
No manual entry for tscan in section 1.
% which tscan
no tscan in . /xxx/ehuser/bin /usr/bin/X11 /usr/local/bin ...
% whereis tscan
tscan:
% alias tscan
%

$ type tscan
tscan not found

- JP


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