Ubuntu – How to run scripts without typing the full path

bashcommand linescripts

I'd like to know if there is a way to run program/shell script without typing full path:

/opt/idea/bin/idea.sh

You can just create symlink. Create it in /usr/local/bin. All you need is to run command:

sudo ln -s /full/path/to/your/file /usr/local/bin/name_of_new_command

After that you should make your file executable:

chmod +x /full/path/to/your/file

Now you should be able to run name_of_new_command at any time in your terminal.

Note that this is good solution only for home usage of Linux.

Some options:

In your shell script, set a variable, different syntax

petsc='/home/your_user/petsc-3.2-p6/petsc-arch/bin/mpiexec'

$petsc myexecutable

Use a function in your script. Probably better if petsc is complex

function petsc () {
    command 1
    command 2
}

petsc myexecutable

Source your aliases

shopt -s expand_aliases
source /home/your_user/.bashrc

You probably do not want to source your .bashrc, so IMO one of the first 3 would be better.

You can use bash's brace expansion. This:

mv my/file/that/has/a/really/long/path/foo.{bar,baz}

will expand into:

mv my/file/that/has/a/really/long/path/foo.bar my/file/that/has/a/really/long/path/foo.baz

and then mv is run with those two arguments. See http://wiki.bash-hackers.org/syntax/expansion/brace for more on brace expansion.