Linux commands: type
A quick guide to the `type` command, used to determine the _kind_ of a command
A command can be one of those 4 types:
- an executable
- a shell built-in program
- a shell function
- an alias
The type
command can help figure out this, in case we want to know or we’re just curious. It will tell you how the command will be interpreted.
The output will depend on the shell used. This is Bash:
This is Zsh:
This is Fish:
One of the most interesting things here is that for aliases it will tell you what is aliasing to. You can see the ll
alias, in the case of Bash and Zsh, but Fish provides it by default, so it will tell you it’s a built-in shell function.
The
type
command works on Linux, macOS, WSL, and anywhere you have a UNIX environment
→ I wrote 17 books to help you become a better developer, download them all at $0 cost by joining my newsletter
→ JOIN MY CODING BOOTCAMP, an amazing cohort course that will be a huge step up in your coding career - covering React, Next.js - next edition February 2025