Find file path and/or user aliases....

[LuckyLeprechaun]

OS using: Linux(core 1), Solaris (5.6 to 5.8), Unix
Perl version: v5.8.5

I need to find the path or alias that the user used to execute the program with (aka $0), just like the built-in shell commands which or where, but using Perl.

Now if I just want the path I have found many ways to do that using things like:

use Cwd qw(realpath);
my $exe_path = realpath($0);
print "\nYou are executing $exe_path.\n";
 

or

use File::Which qw(which where);
my $exe_path = which($0);
 

or

use Shell;
$exe_path = which("$0");
 

etc.....

But none of those work if the user had an alias. I can doing the following examples from the shells command line prompt and it gets what I want, but haven't been able to do the same thing from my Perl script.

Example:
PROMPT> where gp

gp is aliased to egrep --color

PROMPT> alias -p| /usr/bin/which -i -a gp

gp egrep --color
/bin/egrep <--(this is what I really want)

I would prefer the second case (alias -p| /usr/bin/which -i -a) since it gives you the path to the egrep that is being used, but its not absolute that I get that. I would just be happy if I got "gp is aliased to egrep --color". I also what to avoid having to parse through the .cshrc file of the user.

So does anyone know how to do what I want. At this point I'm thinking I may have to create some perl module thats written in another language to do what I want.

[numberwhun]

OS using: Linux(core 1), Solaris (5.6 to 5.8), Unix
Perl version: v5.8.5

I need to find the path or alias that the user used to execute the program with (aka $0), just like the built-in shell commands which or where, but using Perl.

Now if I just want the path I have found many ways to do that using things like:

use Cwd qw(realpath);
my $exe_path = realpath($0);
print "\nYou are executing $exe_path.\n";
 

or

use File::Which qw(which where);
my $exe_path = which($0);
 

or

use Shell;
$exe_path = which("$0");
 

etc.....

But none of those work if the user had an alias. I can doing the following examples from the shells command line prompt and it gets what I want, but haven't been able to do the same thing from my Perl script.

Example:
PROMPT> where gp

gp is aliased to egrep --color

PROMPT> alias -p| /usr/bin/which -i -a gp

gp egrep --color
/bin/egrep <--(this is what I really want)

I would prefer the second case (alias -p| /usr/bin/which -i -a) since it gives you the path to the egrep that is being used, but its not absolute that I get that. I would just be happy if I got "gp is aliased to egrep --color". I also what to avoid having to parse through the .cshrc file of the user.

So does anyone know how to do what I want. At this point I'm thinking I may have to create some perl module thats written in another language to do what I want.

First, when posting, please be sure and be clear. There seem to be so many thoughts in this posting that it is hard to truly decipher what it is you want.

As far as having to cycle through the users .cshrc or whatever other type of dot file, I doubt there will be a way around that. That is where users set their environment up, define functions, set aliases, etc. Unless you are logged in as that user and can type "alias" as them, there would not be another way that I know of.

Regards,

Jeff

[LuckyLeprechaun]

First, when posting, please be sure and be clear. There seem to be so many thoughts in this posting that it is hard to truly decipher what it is you want.

Jeff

Sorry about not being clear. I just want the path to the file the user typed in to execute my script. The problem has been some people use aliases instead, so I don't get the path to the file that was being executed. The script will be executed by the user from there home account.

The reason I need this information is to find rogue/forked copies of my script and log the output to a log file that I can audit.

[prn]

I'm not sure whether it's a language problem or what, but I have no idea at all what you are looking for.

I have created the following file (called mypath):

#! /usr/bin/perl
use strict;
print "You are executing $0 \n";

On Linux (Fedora Core 6), in bash, I run

$ alias shmoo='mypath'
$ shmoo
You are executing /home/prn/perltest/mypath

On Solaris 9, (c shell, since Bourne shell does not do alias), I run:

% alias shmoo '/export/home/prn/mypath'
% shmoo
You are executing /export/home/prn/mypath

So, what did you want?

Best Regards,
Paul

[numberwhun]

I'm not sure whether it's a language problem or what, but I have no idea at all what you are looking for.

I have created the following file (called mypath):

#! /usr/bin/perl
use strict;
print "You are executing $0 \n";

On Linux (Fedora Core 6), in bash, I run

$ alias shmoo='mypath'
$ shmoo
You are executing /home/prn/perltest/mypath

On Solaris 9, (c shell, since Bourne shell does not do alias), I run:

% alias shmoo '/export/home/prn/mypath'
% shmoo
You are executing /export/home/prn/mypath

So, what did you want?

Best Regards,
Paul

I think that he is looking to resolve the aliases for commands that other users have executed and that he sees running in "ps". He would not have a way to really know what the aliases are unless he was sourced into their dot file or logged in as them, I believe.

Regards,

Jeff

[LuckyLeprechaun]

Well after many hours of google searches and banging away at the keyboard, it doesn't appear to be a good clean way. I will parse through the users .cshrc (C shell file) for aliases and do a which command and do some fancy comparison. That will be the only way to catch 98% of the cases.

I'm just really surprised that there was no way to read in a users aliases from a script in any language that I could find.

[numberwhun]

Well after many hours of google searches and banging away at the keyboard, it doesn't appear to be a good clean way. I will parse through the users .cshrc (C shell file) for aliases and do a which command and do some fancy comparison. That will be the only way to catch 98% of the cases.

I'm just really surprised that there was no way to read in a users aliases from a script in any language that I could find.

Actually, I am not so suprised. Even in Unix itself you would have to be logged in as that user or have sourced their .cshrc file in order to know what their aliases are. This, to me, sounds like a good project for a module.

Regards,

Jeff

[LuckyLeprechaun]

... Even in Unix itself you would have to be logged in as that user ....

Regards,

Jeff

That wouldn't be a problem, since the "user" will be the one running the script. So basically it would be logged in as that user.

[numberwhun]

That wouldn't be a problem, since the "user" will be the one running the script. So basically it would be logged in as that user.

Well, if it is part of the script that the user is running, then just do an:

alias <command_name>
 

and it will return what it is triggering.

Regards,

Jeff

[LuckyLeprechaun]

When I was testing that out it didn't seem to work at all and just kept giving me errors about not finding command alias.

Since we are running older versions of Linux (Red Hat 4) & Solaris (5.6 or 5.8), I believe that we are just missing updates that allow it to work.

Thanks