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I have a cmd open (Windows 7), and I type "java.exe", and the system finds the executable at c:\program files\java\jre6\bin.

However, this folder is not in the path. What other mechanism affect the exe lookup?

Cfinley
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ripper234
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3 Answers3

14

Starting with Vista and above, Windows now includes a utility called where. This program functions just like you'd expect the unix counterpart to (I'm glad they added it!)

Usage:

C:\>where java
C:\Windows\System32\java.exe

What's even nicer about where is that it'll show you all executables it finds within your path, so if you also had java.exe in C:\Windows it would show up under the \System32\ one.

EDIT

I figured I'd also include an option for XP users that would like the functionality without third party tools. Raymond Chen wrote a command script in A 90-byte "whereis" program. It's a nice one liner that accomplishes the same task!

@for %%e in (%PATHEXT%) do @for %%i in (%1%%e) do @if NOT "%%~$PATH:i"=="" echo %%~$PATH:i

Save the above script in a .bat or .cmd file and you can launch it from the command line with the filename as the argument. It'll work just like you expect! (note, if using the script version, leave off the extension, it'll search all executable extensions for you)

Joshua
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    +1 Always prefer a native solution 'where' possible :) – Phoshi Oct 06 '09 at 13:42
  • +1; never knew about this command before! (And I used to think I was pretty handy with the command line!) – John Rudy Oct 06 '09 at 13:56
  • +1 for new-to-me. It works similarly to the find command in Unix (unlike the find command in DOS or Windows). You can do where -r \users\username\documents *.xl* for example. – Dennis Williamson Oct 06 '09 at 18:12
  • +1 thanks for the XP script - I saved it as where.bat and it works just like vista would! :) – Bohemian Sep 03 '12 at 01:37
  • The nix equivalent is "which". The "where" one is a script on redhat perhaps for people that forget that it is 'which' on nix – barlop Jul 06 '14 at 06:50
2

there's a copy of java.exe in c:\windows\system32 (which is a path defined in the environment variables). that's the one that comes up when you type java.exe at the command prompt, not the one in c:\program files\java\jre6\bin.

0

There is an another way to look up files location in path using powershell:

(Get-Command java).Source
Wasif
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