This link might be useful for the OP, especially the type command

Ha ha, over twenty years ago I was ordered by our Unix guru at work to never use the C shell and to "always use the type command, never the which command". Being frightened of our Unix guru, I've always followed that advice ... but been surprised many times over the years by folks looking over my shoulder asking "what is the type command?" - my experience has been that most people use the which command and have never even heard of the type command! ... perhaps showing the importance of a descriptive name.

See also:

• why not use which and what to use instead (stackexchange, where the which command is discouraged)
• how is whence different than which (stackexchange question)
• cd external command (stackexchange question)
• What is the Unix command to found out what executable file corresponds to (superuser question)
• Csh considered harmful by Tom Christiansen (1995)

References Added Later

• Unix type command (wikipedia)
• Unix which command (wikipedia)
• POSIX command command (sic) (wikipedia)
• KornShell (wikipedia)

• POSIX type command (opengroup)
• Linux type command (linuxcommand)
• POSIX command command (sic) (opengroup)
• KornShell whence command (mks)

• Re^5: Devel::NYTProf: "undefined symbol: PL_stack_sp" error by ikegami (2021)
• Re^9: Devel::NYTProf: "undefined symbol: PL_stack_sp" error by me (2021)

• (Windows) verbatim command line arguments inside Perl script by LanX (2021)
• $^O empty in windows powershell by WithABeard (2022)

• What is Windows equivalent of the which command in Unix? Is there an equivalent PowerShell command?
• Windows Powershell Get-Command

See Also

• Re: Some Help for a Report About Perl (One-liner References)

"... most people use the which command and have never even heard of the type command! ..."

That's very interesting. I've used quite an array of shells since the '80s (sh, ksh, bash, csh, tcsh, and others). I'm reasonably certain I've used which almost exclusively. I couldn't definitely say I've never heard of type but, had I been asked about it yesterday, I would have had to look it up. I decided to look into this a bit further.

There appears to be some redundant information (<some-command> is) with type; however, in isolation that doesn't appear to be a problem.

$ which perl
/.../perl

$ type perl
perl is /.../perl
[download]

I did encounter an issue in this scenario:

$ ls -l `which perl`
-rwxr-xr-x 2 ken None 169225 Jun 23 20:35 /.../perl

$ ls -l `type perl`
ls: cannot access 'perl': No such file or directory
ls: cannot access 'is': No such file or directory
-rwxr-xr-x 2 ken None 169225 Jun 23 20:35 /.../perl
[download]

On the other hand, it's particularly useful here:

$ which perle
which: no perle in (...)

$ type perle
perle is aliased to `perl -Mstrict -Mwarnings -Mautodie=:all -MCarp::A
+lways -E'
[download]

So, it looks like both commands have their uses in different situations. I will remember type from now on and use it where needed. Thanks for pointing out this command. [Edit: Actually, it looks like LanX was the first to mention type, so thanks Rolf.]

[In case anyone was wondering, the /.../perl represents identical pathnames throughout. With "perlbrew", those paths are long and would probably wrap.]

— Ken

I've been an SA for like 10 years and never knew that until now. When I think type, I think DOS / windows cat command. Seems to still work in powershell:

PS C:\Users\Dubs> get-Command type,cat,where,gm,help,get-help

CommandType     Name                       Version    Source
-----------     ----                       -------    ------
Alias           type -> Get-Content
Alias           cat -> Get-Content
Alias           where -> Where-Object
Alias           gm -> Get-Member
Function        help
Cmdlet          Get-Help                  3.0.0.0    Microsoft.PowerSh
+ell.Core
[download]

Looks like zsh and csh alias to whence -v.