A Shell Script To Locate Executable Files Project Requirement Help

18 Nov 2020

Write a shell script to locate executable files. This script takes a list of file names from the command line

and determines which would be executed had these names been given as commands.

Please refer the Syllabus for the Assignment / Project Requirements and Guidelines

The search path should be based only on the user’s PATH environment variable. You shall not use the

Unix which command, the ksh whence (type) command, the locate command, or the bash type command.

The code for the script shall not use the UNIX ls command to determine if the file is executable or if it

exists.

The script should find only the first occurrence of the “file”. If the file is not found, the script the following

<command> NOT FOUND

<command> would be replaced by the name of the “file” you didn’t find.

If the first parameter is ‘-a’, then the script should print all occurrences of the executable file in the user’s

path. Again, if the file was not on the path, an error message should be displayed.

The find command shall not be used.

A project using temporary files will not be graded.

NOTE: The shell variable PATH defines the search path for the directory containing the command.

Alternative directory names are separated by a colon (:). The current directory can be specified by two or

more adjacent colons, or by a colon at the beginning or end of the path list.

If the command name contains a / then the search path is not used, you just check if the command/file

specified is executable and not a directory. Otherwise, each directory in the path is searched for an

executable file.