Gfilui

There is a file that I would like execute in a different folder, under about four sub-directories.

For example:

My pwd may be /home/directoryA. However, the file I would like
execute may be in directoryD. At the moment if I want to execute the file I would need to go to cd /home/directoryA/directoryB/directoryC/directoryD/ and then execute the file. Or I might have do something like src /directoryA/directoryB/directoryC/directoryD/somefile

1. Is it possible to execute the file without actually being in the directory where the file is?




2. Is there a shortcut way of executing the file somefile without going into the directory?

No you don't need to use:

cd home/directoryA/directoryB/directoryC/DirectoryD
./somefile 

You can simply run the command by prefixing it with its path:

/home/directoryA/directoryB/directoryC/DirectoryD/somefile

Because you are already in the /home/directoryA you can use the current directory shortcut . and run the command like this:

./directoryB/directoryC/DirectoryD/somefile

I noticed OP has expanded scope via comments under other answers. Here is some additional information:

• To find out where somefile is located use: locate somefile.


• If somefile was added today you need to first update the locate database by running sudo updatedb.


• When there are multiple versions of somefile located in the PATH you can find out which one is executed first use which somefile.


• If you want to run somefile without specifying a directory name in front put it in the path. To check the path use echo $PATH. Common path locations to put somefile are /usr/local/bin (if it uses sudo powers) and /home/your_user_name/bin (you might have to create the directory first).


• You can also add /home/directoryA/directoryB/directoryC/DirectoryD/ to your path but that would be highly unusual. However you could then simply type somefile no matter what directory you are in and it will run.


• Of course somefile must be executable which you set with the command: chmod a+x /home/directoryA/directoryB/directoryC/DirectoryD/somefile
  

Sure! If somefile is marked as executable, you can run it with

~/directoryA/directoryB/directoryC/DirectoryD/somefile

Want to know if somefile is executable? Go to its directory and run

find . -maxdepth 1 -perm -111 -type f

to see all the executables in that directory.

The $PATH shell variable contains the directories where the executables are searched. Add the directory containing your executable into $PATH and it can be executed from anywhere.

Add in .bashrc file:

export PATH=$PATH:/../your_directory

There is another way (somehow not already mentioned) by using shell profile (.bashrc, .zshrc etc).

You can run:

# Assuming it is a script you made, changing file permission to make it executable
chmod a+x ~/directoryA/directoryB/directoryC/directoryD/somefile

# Appending your shell profile with an alias to run the script from wherever you are
echo "alias somename="source ~/directoryA/directoryB/directoryC/directoryD/somefile"" >> ~/.profile

# replace ~/.profile with config file of whichever shell you use
# Also replace source with python if the script is a python script or whichever interpreter it requires for execution
# Make sure you have #!/usr/bin/env python or #!/path/to/interpreter on your computer as the first line of your script

Although above method allows the script to be run from anywhere you should make sure the script doesn't depend on the pwd (present working directory) for execution (unless intended).

You can then run the script as executable in any directory, like:

somename

P.S.:
As for why not append the directory to PATH was simply under the assumption that only the single executable was to be added and not a directory full of executables like adb-platform-tools in which case appending the directory path to PATH would be the method to use.