List executables that are in $PATH without knowing their locations

Question

Is there a way to (glob-like) list executables that match a certain pattern without knowing their actual locations? For example, let’s say I have multiple versions of GCC installed: gcc-10, gcc-11 and gcc-12, then I need the pattern gcc-* to yield something like ['gcc-10', 'gcc-11', 'gcc-12'].

The behavior I’m after is equivalent to writing gcc- and then hitting tab in a Unix shell.

Asked By: thomas_f

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Source

Answer 1

You could get the PATH environment variable, split it, then run a glob search on each extracted directory.

import os
from glob import glob
paths = os.environ.get("PATH", "").split(os.path.pathsep)
glob_pattern = "gcc-*"
found = []
for path in paths:
    found.extend(glob(os.path.join(path, glob_pattern)))
print(found)

Answered By: tdelaney

Answer 2

You would have to iterate over the contents of PATH, then iterate over the files in each directory to check if they are executable. (Basically, you need to re-implement the core functionality of the which command.) Something like

for d in os.environ['PATH'].split(':'):
    for f in pathlib.Path(d).glob('gcc-*'):
        if os.access(f, os.X_OK):
            print(f)

Answered By: chepner

List executables that are in $PATH without knowing their locations

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