How can I check if a program exists from a Bash script?

Question

How would I validate that a program exists, in a way that will either return an error and exit, or continue with the script?

It seems like it should be easy, but it\

Answer 1

I second the use of "command -v". E.g. like this:

md=$(command -v mkdirhier) ; alias md=${md:=mkdir}  # bash

emacs="$(command -v emacs) -nw" || emacs=nano
alias e=$emacs
[[ -z $(command -v jed) ]] && alias jed=$emacs