locate - find files by name
locate [OPTION]... PATTERN...
locate reads one or more databases prepared by
updatedb(8) and writes file names matching at least one of the
PATTERNs to standard output, one per line.
If --regex is not specified, PATTERNs can contain
globbing characters. If any PATTERN contains no globbing characters,
locate behaves as if the pattern were
*PATTERN*.
By default, locate does not check whether files found in
database still exist (but it does require all parent directories to exist if
the database was built with --require-visibility no). locate
can never report files created after the most recent update of the relevant
database.
locate exits with status 0 if any match was found or if
locate was invoked with one of the --limit 0, --help,
--statistics or --version options. If no match was found or a
fatal error was encountered, locate exits with status 1.
Errors encountered while reading a database are not fatal, search
continues in other specified databases, if any.
- -A, --all
- Print only entries that match all PATTERNs instead of requiring
only one of them to match.
- -b,
--basename
- Match only the base name against the specified patterns. This is the
opposite of --wholename.
- -c, --count
- Instead of writing file names on standard output, write the number of
matching entries only.
- -d, --database
DBPATH
- Replace the default database with DBPATH. DBPATH is a
:-separated list of database file names. If more than one
--database option is specified, the resulting path is a
concatenation of the separate paths.
An empty database file name is replaced by the default
database. A database file name - refers to the standard input.
Note that a database can be read from the standard input only once.
- -e,
--existing
- Print only entries that refer to files existing at the time locate
is run.
- -L, --follow
- When checking whether files exist (if the --existing option is
specified), follow trailing symbolic links. This causes broken symbolic
links to be omitted from the output.
This is the default behavior. The opposite can be specified
using --nofollow.
- -h, --help
- Write a summary of the available options to standard output and exit
successfully.
- -i,
--ignore-case
- Ignore case distinctions when matching patterns.
- -l, --limit, -n
LIMIT
- Exit successfully after finding LIMIT entries. If the
--count option is specified, the resulting count is also limited to
LIMIT.
- -m, --mmap
- Ignored, for compatibility with BSD and GNU
locate.
- -P, --nofollow,
-H
- When checking whether files exist (if the --existing option is
specified), do not follow trailing symbolic links. This causes broken
symbolic links to be reported like other files.
This is the opposite of --follow.
- -0, --null
- Separate the entries on output using the ASCII NUL
character instead of writing each entry on a separate line. This option is
designed for interoperability with the --null option of
GNU xargs(1).
- -S,
--statistics
- Write statistics about each read database to standard output instead of
searching for files and exit successfully.
- -q, --quiet
- Write no messages about errors encountered while reading and processing
databases.
- -r, --regexp
REGEXP
- Search for a basic regexp REGEXP. No PATTERNs are allowed if
this option is used, but this option can be specified multiple times.
- --regex
- Interpret all PATTERNs as extended regexps.
- -s, --stdio
- Ignored, for compatibility with BSD and GNU
locate.
- -V, --version
- Write information about the version and license of locate on
standard output and exit successfully.
- -w,
--wholename
- Match only the whole path name against the specified patterns.
This is the default behavior. The opposite can be specified
using --basename.
To search for a file named exactly NAME (not
*NAME*), use
locate -b '\NAME'
Because \ is a globbing character, this disables the implicit replacement
of NAME by *NAME*.
- /var/lib/mlocate/mlocate.db
- The database searched by default.
- LOCATE_PATH
- Path to additional databases, added after the default database or the
databases specified using the --database option.
The order in which the requested databases are processed is
unspecified, which allows locate to reorder the database path for
security reasons.
locate attempts to be compatible to slocate (without
the options used for creating databases) and GNU
locate, in that order. This is the reason for the impractical default
--follow option and for the confusing set of --regex and
--regexp options.
The short spelling of the -r option is incompatible to
GNU locate, where it corresponds to the --regex
option. Use the long option names to avoid confusion.
The LOCATE_PATH environment variable replaces the default
database in BSD and GNU locate, but it
is added to other databases in this implementation and slocate.
Miloslav Trmac <mitr@redhat.com>