PowerShell equivalent of BASH (etc) 'type' command?

Question

On *nix, using BASH (etc) you ask the system where a command is located (etc) by using the 'type' shell built-in like this:

$ type cat
cat is /bin/cat

Is there an equivalent of this 'type' command in Microsoft PowerShell 2.0 ?

pb2q · Accepted Answer · 2018-01-01 22:13:29Z

18

An equivalent is Get-Command.

PS C:\> Get-Command ls

CommandType     Name       Definition
-----------     ----       ----------
Alias           ls         Get-ChildItem
Application     ls.exe     D:\usr\local\wbin\ls.exe
Application     ls.exe     C:\Program Files (x86)\Git\bin\ls.exe

Windows 10 Update:

Since I've posted this answer, it appears that the behavior of Get-Command has changed. To include all results (in the style of Un*x) type), now I need to pass the -All flag, like so:

PS C:\> Get-Command -All ls

CommandType     Name                 Version    Source
-----------     ----                 -------    ------
Alias           ls -> Get-ChildItem
Application     ls.exe               0.0.0.0    C:\Program Files (x86)\Git\usr\bin\ls.exe

As noted in a comment, this doesn't include the Definition column as was the previous behavior. I can't determine a command-line argument to add the definition column, but as noted by @voutasaurus in the comment below, one can use:

PS C:\> (Get-Command -All ls).Definition
Get-ChildItem
C:\Program Files (x86)\Git\usr\bin\ls.exe

Version information for reference (I odn't have the version information associated with the original answer text, but I'm guessing that it was Windows 7):

PS C:\> [System.Environment]::OSVersion.Version

Major  Minor  Build  Revision
-----  -----  -----  --------
10     0      15063  0

edited Jan 1, 2018 at 22:13

answered Sep 7, 2012 at 15:06

pb2q

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3 Comments

voutasaurus Over a year ago

This doesn't work for functions defined in $profile, whereas type returns the definition of the function in bash.

voutasaurus Over a year ago

I'm getting this: > Get-Command Get-Command CommandType Name Version Source ----------- ---- ------- ------ Cmdlet Get-Command 3.0.0.0 Microsoft.PowerShell.Core If you use (Get-Command Get-Command).Definition then you actually get the definition.

pb2q Over a year ago

Thanks @voutasaurus that must have changed since the answer was posted. I've amended the answer with your suggestion.

A_R_ · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-20 03:36:05Z

2

Get-Command has a -ShowCommandInfo parameter that does this. It also works for functions defined in $profile :

PS C:\Users\vp937ll> Get-Command l -ShowCommandInfo

Name          : l
ModuleName    :
Module        : @{Name=}
CommandType   : Function
Definition    : Get-ChildItem | Sort-Object -Property LastWriteTime -Descending
ParameterSets : {@{Name=__AllParameterSets; IsDefault=False; Parameters=System.Management.Automation.PSObject[]}}

answered Jun 20, 2020 at 3:36

A_R_

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Comments

pavol.kutaj · Accepted Answer · 2021-10-20 12:57:11Z

Get-Command seems right, aliased as gcm
Just pipe it to Select-Object * aliased as select *

E.g., in $profile I have a function that opens total commander from pwd (it silently kills the existing instance first)

function start-totalCommanderhere {
    $here = (Get-Location).path
    kill -n TOTALCMD64 -ErrorAction Ignore
    start "c:\totalcmd\TOTALCMD64.EXE" $here
}
Set-Alias tc start-totalCommanderhere

Here is all the info about the function — it however does not tell you directly that it is a function, you would need to query its proper name not alias to get that information from CommandType attribute. (than it would be same as type in bash which tells you hello_world is a function in case it is one)

▶ gcm tc | select *

HelpUri             :
ResolvedCommandName : start-totalCommanderhere
DisplayName         : tc -> start-totalCommanderhere
ReferencedCommand   : start-totalCommanderhere
ResolvedCommand     : start-totalCommanderhere
Definition          : start-totalCommanderhere
Options             : None
Description         :
OutputType          : {}
Name                : tc
CommandType         : Alias
Source              :
Version             :
Visibility          : Public
ModuleName          :
Module              :
RemotingCapability  : PowerShell
Parameters          : {}
ParameterSets       :

gcm <module_name> | select * gives you the path if you ask for a CommandType which is Application

▶ gcm ping | select *

HelpUri            :
FileVersionInfo    : File:             C:\Windows\system32\PING.EXE
                     InternalName:     ping.exe
                     OriginalFilename: ping.exe.mui
                     FileVersion:      10.0.19041.320 (WinBuild.160101.0800)
                     FileDescription:  TCP/IP Ping Command
                     Product:          Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
                     ProductVersion:   10.0.19041.320
                     Debug:            False
                     Patched:          False
                     PreRelease:       False
                     PrivateBuild:     False
                     SpecialBuild:     False
                     Language:         English (United States)

Path               : C:\Windows\system32\PING.EXE
Extension          : .EXE
Definition         : C:\Windows\system32\PING.EXE
Source             : C:\Windows\system32\PING.EXE
Version            : 10.0.19041.1
Visibility         : Public
OutputType         : {System.String}
Name               : PING.EXE
CommandType        : Application
ModuleName         :
Module             :
RemotingCapability : PowerShell
Parameters         :
ParameterSets      :

But with gcm you do not get paths for imported modules — for that you need to use Get-Module | Select-Object Name, Path aliased as gmo | select name,path

▶ gmo | select name, path

Name                            Path
----                            ----
assign-vault-keys-to-env-vars   C:\Users\Admin\Documents\workspace\work.log\kb\powershell\assign-vault-keys-to-env-vars.ps1
CimCmdlets                      C:\Program Files\PowerShell\7\Microsoft.Management.Infrastructure.CimCmdlets.dll
decode-base64                   C:\Users\Admin\Documents\workspace\work.log\kb\powershell\decode-base64.ps1
DnsClient                       C:\WINDOWS\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Modules\DnsClient\DnsClient.psd1
...

Bacon Bits · Accepted Answer · 2018-01-01 22:26:48Z

1

Since you tagged this with Shell, in addition to PowerShell's Get-Command, there's where.exe:

PS C:\> where.exe notepad
C:\Windows\System32\notepad.exe
C:\Windows\notepad.exe

The command just looks for a file with the specified name through the path:

PS C:\> where.exe readme.*
C:\Python31\README.txt
C:\Program Files (x86)\wget\README
C:\Program Files (x86)\SysinternalsSuite\readme.txt

Note that when calling this command from PowerShell, you must call it as where.exe because Where-Object is aliased to where.

edited Jan 1, 2018 at 22:26

answered Jan 1, 2018 at 22:21

Bacon Bits

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