Path variable: Find folder path of specific file

Question

On Linux and other Unix-likes, how do I find the path to a specific file that I can use because of the PATH environment variable? For example, if I can use, from the command line:

ls # technically the file name is "ls.exe"

is there a way I can find the path of the ls.exe file explicitly without looking through the PATH variable myself (i.e. maybe have a program search through it but not look myself)?

I understand there are many pitfalls/caveats of doing this, for example a PATH can be a file or even part of a file (I think), plus symlinks, etc. could make it unreliable, but I'm looking for general use cases.

The reason I am asking is I have Windows with msysgit so I have A LOT of folders in my path, and searching every one would be annoying & time-consuming, not to mention harder because of Windows limitations, but I can still presumably use almost anything Linux can use.

Answer 1

   $ type ls.exe
   ls.exe is /usr/bin/ls.exe