[SOLVED] Capture a list of all installed commands

worm5252 · 01-30-2010, 01:49 PM

if I open a terminal and hit [TAB] [TAB] it will display "Display all 2583 possibilities? (y or n) ". If I press y is there a way to capture the output and write it to a file?

Not like it is a command so I can't just use a redirect to a file? If not I guess I could just do an ls on all locations of $PATH and capture that to a file.

Tinkster · 01-30-2010, 05:12 PM

man script

Will do (in a not so elegant manner) do what you want.

colucix · 01-30-2010, 05:34 PM

I'm not used to programmable tab completion and maybe there is a better way, but you can obtain that list using

Code:

compgen -c "" | sort -u

where -c is meant to generate a completion list using only command names and "" is the null string... the same you DID NOT type before [TAB][TAB]...

Tinkster · 01-30-2010, 05:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by colucix

I'm not used to programmable tab completion and maybe there is a better way, but you can obtain that list using

Code:

compgen -c "" | sort -u

where -c is meant to generate a completion list using only command names and "" is the null string... the same you DID NOT type before [TAB][TAB]...

On my system that lists ANYTHING with an x-flag, that
includes directories....

Cheers,
Tink

minrich · 01-30-2010, 05:51 PM

I think that you will find that all the 'commands' listed equate to all the files in /bin and /usr/bin - I believe that these are determined by your path setting. Type $PATH in a terminal/console to see what your bash settings are. Therefore, a simple listing to a text file will accomplish what you appear to want, try:

Quote:

ls /usr/bin > commands.txt

worm5252 · 01-30-2010, 06:00 PM

[TAB] [TAB] does list all the files in my $PATH. So I guess the best way is to just do like you said minrich and redirect the ls to somewhere.

colucix · 01-30-2010, 06:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tinkster

On my system that lists ANYTHING with an x-flag, that includes directories....

That's strange. The -c option should limit the result to command names. I've just tried the compgen command on different systems (OpenSuse, CentOS, Vectorlinux) and it gives the list of commands only. Hmmm... I should investigate...

Tinkster · 01-30-2010, 06:26 PM

More like

Code:

for i in $(echo $PATH|tr -d '.'| tr ':' ' '); do find $i -type f  ; done