I built whi for super simple path management (Unix)

Magically simple PATH management

whi is a powerful which replacement with PATH manipulation. Find executables, see all matches, and reorder your PATH with simple shell commands.

• Better than which: Shows winner by default, all matches with -a
• PATH manipulation: Move, swap, and prefer executables with shell integration
• Winner indication: Clearly marks which executable would actually run with color
• PATH indices (-i): Shows the PATH index for each match
• Full PATH listing (-f): Displays complete PATH with indices
• Follow symlinks (-l): Resolves and shows canonical targets
• File metadata (-s): Shows inode, device, size, and modification time
• Combinable flags: Unix-style flag combining (e.g., -ais, -ifl)
• Pipe-friendly: Quiet by default, all output to stdout
• Zero dependencies: Only libc for isatty(3)

Or build from source:

whi provides shell integration that gives you commands to manipulate your PATH directly in your current shell session. Without shell integration, whi --move and similar commands would only output a new PATH string - they can't modify your actual shell's PATH variable.

To enable shell integration, add this to your shell config:

Bash (~/.bashrc):

Zsh (~/.zshrc):

Fish (~/.config/fish/config.fish):

The whi init <shell> command outputs shell-specific functions that you can evaluate/source. This provides four powerful commands:

• whim FROM TO - Move PATH entry from index FROM to index TO

  $ whim 10 1 # Move entry at index 10 to position 1

• whis IDX1 IDX2 - Swap two PATH entries

  $ whis 10 41 # Swap entries at indices 10 and 41

• whip NAME INDEX - Make executable at INDEX win (prefer it over others)

  $ whip cargo 50 # Make cargo at index 50 the winner

• whia NAME - Show all matches with indices (shortcut for whi -ia)

  $ whia cargo # Equivalent to: whi -ia cargo

These commands actually modify your current shell's PATH environment variable, so changes take effect immediately without restarting your shell or sourcing config files

Find an executable (like which):

See all matches with -a:

With PATH indices (or use whia cargo shortcut):

Make a different version win:

Move PATH entries around:

Swap two PATH entries:

Read names from stdin:

Follow symlinks (shows original → canonical):

Override PATH:

Short flags can be combined Unix-style (e.g., -ai = -a -i, -ais = -a -i -s).

• -a, --all - Show all PATH matches (default: only winner)
• -f, --full - Show full PATH directory listing
• -i, --index - Show PATH index next to each entry
• -l, -L, --follow-symlinks - Resolve and show canonical targets
• -o, --one - Only print the first match per name
• -s, --stat - Include inode/device/mtime/size metadata
• -0, --print0 - NUL-separated output for use with xargs
• -q, --quiet - Suppress non-fatal stderr warnings
• --silent - Print nothing to stderr, use exit codes only
• --show-nonexec - Also list files that exist but aren't executable
• -h, --help - Print help information

These commands output a modified PATH string to stdout. Use shell integration (see above) to actually modify your current shell's PATH.

• --move <FROM> <TO> - Move PATH entry from index FROM to index TO

  $ whi --move 10 1 /path/at/10:/path/at/1:/path/at/2:...

• --swap <IDX1> <IDX2> - Swap PATH entries at indices IDX1 and IDX2

  $ whi --swap 10 41 /modified/path/string/...

• --prefer <NAME> <INDEX> - Make executable NAME at INDEX win

  $ whi --prefer cargo 50 /modified/path/string/...

• --path <PATH> - Override environment PATH string

  $ whi --path="/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin" python

• --color <WHEN> - Colorize output: auto, never, always [default: auto]

  $ whi --color=always cargo

• whi init <SHELL> - Output shell integration code for bash, zsh, or fish
  $ whi init bash # Output bash functions $ whi init zsh # Output zsh functions $ whi init fish # Output fish functions

• 0 - All names found
• 1 - At least one not found
• 2 - Usage error
• 3 - I/O or environment error

Find all versions of Python in PATH:

Check which node would run with indices:

Use with xargs to check executables:

Find all versions with metadata:

Show full PATH listing with indices:

Ever wonder:

• Which version of python or node is actually running?
• How to make a different version win without editing shell configs?
• What other versions exist on your PATH?
• What's the actual order of your PATH directories?

whi answers all these questions and lets you manipulate your PATH on the fly with simple shell commands.

MIT

Alexander Knott [email protected]