Shell/Builtin/type

• type (shell builtin)

  • What it does

    • type shows how the shell resolves each command name (alias, function, builtin, or executable path).

  • -a

    • -a shows all matches found for each name, in shell resolution order.
    • This is useful for spotting path shadowing (for example, when both mise and nvm provide node).

  • Example

    • Command:
      bash

      type -a node npm codex rulesync claude

    • Output in this environment:
      text

      node is /Users/pnore/.local/share/mise/installs/node/24.11.1/bin/node
      node is /Users/pnore/.nvm/versions/node/v12.16.1/bin/node
      npm is /Users/pnore/.local/share/mise/installs/node/24.11.1/bin/npm
      npm is /Users/pnore/.local/share/mise/installs/npm/11.6.1/bin/npm
      npm is /Users/pnore/.nvm/versions/node/v12.16.1/bin/npm
      codex is /Users/pnore/.local/share/mise/installs/node/24.11.1/bin/codex
      codex is /Applications/Codex.app/Contents/Resources/codex
      rulesync is /Users/pnore/.local/share/mise/installs/node/24.11.1/bin/rulesync
      claude is /Users/pnore/.local/bin/claude

  • POSIX status

    • type is not required by POSIX sh.
    • type -a is shell-specific (for example Bash and zsh).
    • For POSIX-portable command lookup, prefer command -v <name>.

  • See also

    • Shell/PATH
    • CLI/Tool
    • POSIX