How to Run a Linux Executable from Any Directory in Terminal

How can i run a linux executable from any directory in terminal?

Read about the PATH variable. It could be set by your shell. Check with echo $PATH its current value. It is also used by several exec(3) functions. BTW, having a long $PATH is bad taste and messy (and could be inefficient).

If your login shell is /bin/bash you could edit your ~/.bashrc (used for interactive shells) to add something like

 PATH="$PATH:/something/more"

but on several recent Linux distributions, the $HOME/bin/ directory is already part of your PATH, and you might add scripts, executables, or symlinks to them in it.

So (when $HOME/bin is mentioned in $PATH) I don't recommend extending your PATH, but rather adding appropriate executables, executable scripts or symlinks into that $HOME/bin/ directory.

Of course, if you have some executable in $HOME/someproject/someprog you can still explicitly run it with a shell command starting with $HOME/someproject/someprog.

Your build procedure might also have some installation step. For example, if you use GNU make as your build automation, you might have an install phony target in your Makefile which copies the executable after its compilation into some appropriate place. See also hier(7) & install(1), and autoconf.

Look for inspiration into the source code of some existing free software, e.g. on github.

Notice that many utilities (e.g. cron and your crontab(5)) don't use your interactive PATH (but some reduced default one). So you might want to give an absolute path of some script when using crontab(1).

How to make a programme executable anywhere in the SHELL

Make the scripts executable: chmod +x $HOME/scrips/* This needs to be done only once.
Add the directory containing the scripts to the PATH variable: export PATH=$HOME/scrips/:$PATH (Verify the result with echo $PATH.) The export command needs to be run in every shell session. For convenience, you want to add that command to the $HOME/.profile file so it is run automatically for you at log-in time.

Now you can execute script.pl some-arguments or script.py some-arguments from anywhere.

How do I run a program with a different working directory from current, from Linux shell?

Call the program like this:

(cd /c; /a/helloworld)

The parentheses cause a sub-shell to be spawned. This sub-shell then changes its working directory to /c, then executes helloworld from /a. After the program exits, the sub-shell terminates, returning you to your prompt of the parent shell, in the directory you started from.

Error handling: To avoid running the program without having changed the directory, e.g. when having misspelled /c, make the execution of helloworld conditional:

(cd /c && /a/helloworld)

Reducing memory usage: To avoid having the subshell waste memory while hello world executes, call helloworld via exec:

(cd /c && exec /a/helloworld)

[Thanks to Josh and Juliano for giving tips on improving this answer!]

How to run a .sh-script from any path in a terminal?

One option is simply to type the path to the script:

~/Desktop/script

This works fine, but gets a bit unwieldy.

This is what the PATH environment variable is for. And it is what $HOME/bin is for.

Create yourself a directory $HOME/bin. Put all your executable scripts in it (make them executable with chmod +x script if need be^††). This way, there's one place to look for the scripts you want to run.
Add $HOME/bin to your PATH. I put mine at the front: PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH, but you could put it at the back if you prefer.
Update your .profile or .bash_profile (or possibly .bashrc) file to set PATH. Beware of a continually growing PATH, though.

As tripleee noted, once the command is installed in a directory on PATH, you no longer type ./script, but just script. This is exactly like you type ls and not /bin/ls, etc. Once the program is installed in a directory on your PATH, it is (for many purposes) indistinguishable from a system-provided command.

I have about 500 scripts and programs in my $HOME/bin directory.

Note that this doesn't require any special privileges. If you have administrator access to your machine and you think other users might find your commands useful, then you could install the scripts/programs in one of the system-provided directories on your PATH. However, it is usually best not to add programs to any of:

/bin
/usr/bin
/sbin
/usr/sbin

There is often/usually /usr/local/bin which is a suitable place for widely used commands not provided by the system.

^†† It would be better to use chmod a+x,go-w script; your scripts should not be writable by other people. You could even simply use chmod 555 script or chmod 755 script. I tend to keep my scripts non-writable. That way, I have to go through a formal change process with the version control system. It means there's less danger of uncontrolled changes.

How can I run any executable file from outside of current directory?

The correct format would be to either start from root, /, or to use the current directory, .. These examples assume that "~$" is your prompt.

Using / from anywhere on your system

~$ /home/My_folder/Current_folder/a.out

Using . from the /home/My_Folder directory

~$ ./Current_folder/a.out

How to run commands in any directory in macOS Terminal?

Homebrew usually links the necessary executables to /usr/local/bin directory, which should be in your $PATH. Thus, when you execute a command like sdcc, your shell will seek through the $PATH directories, and when it looks at /usr/local/bin, it will find sdcc, follow the link and execute it.

Some packages do not perform this linking, which means you cannot execute them without knowing where they are. You can ask Homebrew to tell you where a package is installed: brew --prefix <formula>, where <formula> is the package name (e.g. brew --prefix sdcc). The executable files will normally be under a bin subdirectory. For example, brew --prefix sdcc would likely tell you something like /usr/local/opt/sdcc; then you can invoke sdcc using /usr/local/opt/sdcc/bin/sdcc, without having to cd there. You could also put /usr/local/opt/sdcc/bin into your $PATH directly, though I do not recommend it. Another alternative is to create your own bin (mine is in $HOME/.local/bin), put it in $PATH, and link there (ln -s <source> $HOME/.local/bin/) any executables you wish your shell to easily find.

However, with Homebrew packages, I strongly suggest you do not try to imitate Homebrew by yourself, by installing things in Homebrew's domain. You can confuse Homebrew and create problems. Instead, let Homebrew do it.

If you need to install a package on a different OS than the one you are downloading at, you may need to first find out the bottle tag for the target (installation) computer. For example, for Big Sur, it is big_sur. See brew info --json <formula>, under bottle.stable.files you should find the bottle tags. Use --bottle-tag <tag> in step 1 and 2 to select the right OS.
Use brew fetch --deps <formula> to download (but not install) a package, including its dependencies. If you use the --verbose flag, Homebrew will tell you where it downloaded each of the files.
If you haven't used --verbose and still want to know where the downloaded files are: brew deps <formula> will list all the packages it depends on. If a package needs to be compiled, you may need to also use the --include-build option. brew --cache <formula> will show you where a package file is downloaded.
If you need to copy a package file to another computer, you should find out where the Homebrew would expect to find it: use brew --cache --force-bottle <formula> on the target computer, and copy the package file there. Don't forget to do that for each dependency package as well.
After that, brew install <formula> will install from cache.

The only part of this process that needs internet connection is the first step, brew fetch.

How to execute bash script from any location?

If you want to run the script from everywhere you need to add it to your PATH. Usually /usr/local/bin is in the path of every user so this way it should work.
So check if in your system /usr/local/bin is in your PATH doing, on your terminal:

echo $PATH

You should see a lot of paths listed (like /bin, /sbin etc...). If its not listed you can add it. A even better solution is to keep all your scripts inside a directory, for example in your home and add it to your path.

To add a directory in your path you can modify your shell init scripts and add the new directories, for example if you're usin the BASH shell you can edi your .bashrc and add the line:

PATH=$PATH:/the_directory_you_want_to_add/:/another_directory/

This will append the new directories to your existing PATH.

How can I run my script from anywhere(outside the current directory) in my system?

In Unix systems, absolute paths start with / . So you can use absolute path to run a script. In your case all you have to do is run this command from the terminal
sh /home/testing/program/test.sh . It does not matter from which directory you run the command from until you use the absolute path of the script.

Also the file in which the output is written should be defined with absolute path in script file. For example, in your case

/home/centos/rr/email-body.txt

so that the file is recognized by the OS even when the script is executed from the other directory or from any directory whatsoever.