Linux/Ubuntu create executable command for sh file

You can do this by either:

• Add the directory of the command to the $PATH variable, thus:

  export PATH=$PATH:/dir/bin
  

  To do this persistent, you must add this line to the ~/.profile file:

   echo 'export PATH=$PATH:/dir/bin' >> ~/.profile
  

• Create a shortcut (for instance with ln -s '/dir/bin/start.sh' start) in a directory that is added to the path;

  cd <pathdirectory>
  ln -s '/dir/bin/start.sh' start
  

• Create an alias so that the shell simply replaces the command:

  echo 'alias start=./dir/bin/start.sh' >> ~/.profile
  

How/Why does this work

If you type a command in the shell, it will first look for aliases, and replace the aliases. So if you have defined an alias for start, it will simply replace is by ./dir/bin/start.sh; so as if you have written it yourself.

Next the shell will try to find the interpretation of the command. If the command is a file (for instance by using a alias), the file is executed. Otherwise, the system falls back on $PATHs.

$PATHs is a sequence of paths where the system searches for a file with that name. It searches the paths in that order and searches through all the files for a file with the same name. If such file exists, it runs that file.

You can thus do a few things:

• Place such program in the directory; but that's not really a nice option, because different projects are then grouped together;
• Use a shortcut (the ln solution), in that case you only add a "representative" in the path folder;
• Extend the number of paths by performing the PATH=$PATH:/dir/bin, so that it will search your project as well.