by Oliver; 2014
83. type
When you enter some text at the terminal prompt, that text could be a command (a binary or a script), an alias, a bash function, a bash keyword, a bash builtin, and so on.
type will tell you, among these, what type of entity you're dealing with.
For example, on my system:
$ type ssh
ssh is /usr/bin/ssh
This is a straight-up command, not an alias or function.
But, if I've aliased
quickssh to some specific ssh address, then
type will reveal this:
$ type quickssh
quickssh is aliased to `ssh -Y user@myserver.edu'
Also, observe the following:
$ type if
if is a shell keyword
$ type set
set is a shell builtin
type tells us that
if is a reserved word in bash, while
set is a built-in command.
You get the idea!
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