ActiveState Code

Recipe 189973: Where file search utility

This utility searches all the paths in a semi-colon delimited environment variable list for files matching a given filespec. By default, PATH is used for the enviroment. For example, on my computer

C:>where note*.exe C:\WINNT\system32\notepad.exe C:\WINNT\NOTEPAD.EXE

Python 
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"""Searches a path for a specified file.
"""

__author__ = "Bill McNeill <billmcn@speakeasy.net>"
__version__ = "1.0"

import sys
import os
import os.path
import glob

def help():
	print """\
where (Environment) Filespec

Searches the paths specified in Environment for all files matching Filespec.
If Environment is not specified, the system PATH is used.\
"""

if len(sys.argv) == 3:
	paths = os.environ[sys.argv[1]]
	file = sys.argv[2]
elif len(sys.argv) == 2:
	paths = os.environ["PATH"]
	file = sys.argv[1]
else:
	help()
	sys.exit(0)

for path in paths.split(";"):
	for match in glob.glob(os.path.join(path, file)):
		print match

Discussion

This is useful for finding which executable file will be loaded by default. The optional Environment variable is handy for debugging build environments.

Comments

  1. 1. At 3:39 a.m. on 6 apr 2003, Andy Kirkpatrick said:

    Cross platform tweak. To support other platforms,

    for path in paths.split(os.pathsep):

    I know UNIX generally has this functionality included, but just in case you want it python-native. Now I'm wondering if the mac uses a variable called PATH...

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