Читать книгу Linux Bible - Christopher Negus - Страница 94

If you want to add your own commands or shell scripts, place them in the bin directory in your home directory (such as /home/chris/bin for the user named chris). This directory is automatically added to your path in some Linux systems, although you may need to create that directory or add it to your PATH on other Linux systems. So, as long as you add the command to your bin with execute permission, you can begin using it by simply typing the command name at your shell prompt. To make commands available to all users, add them to /usr/local/bin.

Unlike some other operating systems, Linux does not, by default, check the current directory for an executable before searching the path. It immediately begins searching the path, and executables in the current directory are run only if they are in the PATH variable or you give their absolute (such as /home/chris/scriptx.sh) or relative (for example, ./scriptx.sh) location.

The path directory order is important. Directories are checked from left to right. So, in this example, if there is a command called foo located in both the /usr/bin and /bin directories, the one in /usr/bin is executed. To have the other foo command run, you either type the full path to the command or change your PATH variable. (Changing your PATH and adding directories to it are described later in this chapter.)

Not all of the commands you run are located in directories in your PATH variable. Some commands are built into the shell. Other commands can be overridden by creating aliases that define any commands and options that you want the command to run. There are also ways of defining a function that consists of a stored series of commands. Here is the order in which the shell checks for the commands you type:

1 Aliases. These are names set by the alias command that represent a particular command and a set of options. Type alias to see what aliases are set. Often, aliases enable you to define a short name for a long, complicated command. (I describe how to create your own aliases later in this chapter.)

2 Shell reserved word. These are words reserved by the shell for special use. Many of these are words that you would use in programming-type functions, such as do, while, case, and else. (I cover some of these reserved words in Chapter 7, “Writing Simple Shell Scripts.”)

3 Function. This is a set of commands that is executed together within the current shell.

4 Built-in command. This is a command built into the shell. As a result, there is no representation of the command in the filesystem. Some of the most common commands that you will use are shell built-in commands, such as cd (to change directories), echo (to output text to the screen), exit (to exit from a shell), fg (to bring a command running in the background to the foreground), history (to see a list of commands that were previously run), pwd (to list the present working directory), set (to set shell options), and type (to show the location of a command).

5 Filesystem command. This command is stored in and executed from the computer's filesystem. (These are the commands that are indicated by the value of the PATH variable.)

To determine the location of a particular command, you can use the type command. (If you are using a shell other than bash, use the which command instead.) For example, to find out where the bash shell command is located, enter the following:

 $ type bash bash is /bin/bash

Try these few words with the type command to see other locations of commands: which, case, and return. If a command resides in several locations, you can add the -a option to have all of the known locations of the command printed. For example, the command type -a ls should show an aliased and filesystem location for the ls command.