top | item 24327804

(no title)

I use 'echo $0' to see what shell I'm using.

discuss

jan6|5 years ago

which "$(echo $0)" should work no matter the invokation ;p if full path, it still returns full path, if just "bash" or such it finds it from $PATH, badoom!

xorcist|5 years ago

The only reason anyone would want to say "$($echo $0)", echoing the variable through a subshell and substituting it with itself, is to rely on the subshell parameter splitting to remove duplicate field separators from the variable.

That is likely not the case there, and any such file names are unlikely to exist. Just say: which "$0"

aidenn0|5 years ago

Which is not guaranteed to be present. 'command -v' should work on any posix shell though.

em500|5 years ago

As the author notes in the 2nd section, that will return the location of the shell binary in the user path, which is not necessarily the one that is currently running.

contingencies|5 years ago

Nah.

  $ which "$(echo $0)"
  which: illegal option -- b
  usage: which [-as] program ...

  $ echo $0
  -bash

OSX. True story.

SAI_Peregrinus|5 years ago

Only for POSIX shells.

fish: $(...) is not supported. In fish, please use '(echo)'. which "$(echo $0)" ^

;)

0x0|5 years ago

But you might have customized your PATH after your shell was executed? So this does not seem accurate.

stbtrax|5 years ago

the article is about finding the specific version and path

imwally|5 years ago

Yeah, it's a little meta. I was afraid that what I was trying to say wouldn't quite come across. It's why I mentioned "the shell I'm currently typing in" so many times.

moonchild|5 years ago

echo $0 will tell you the exact path if it was so executed as a login shell (or otherwise with a full path). If the shell was executed otherwise, then 'which $0' will tell you where it came from, because it must have come from $PATH.