1locate(1) General Commands Manual locate(1)
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6 locate - find files by name
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10 locate [OPTION]... PATTERN...
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14 locate reads one or more databases prepared by updatedb(8) and writes
15 file names matching at least one of the PATTERNs to standard output,
16 one per line.
17 If --regex is not specified, PATTERNs can contain globbing characters.
19 If any PATTERN contains no globbing characters, locate behaves as if
20 the pattern were *PATTERN*.
21 By default, locate does not check whether files found in database still
23 exist. locate can never report files created after the most recent
24 update of the relevant database.
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28 locate exits with status 0 if any match was found or if locate was
29 invoked with one of the --limit 0, --help, --statistics or --version
30 options. If no match was found or a fatal error was encountered,
31 locate exits with status 1.
32 Errors encountered while reading a database are not fatal, search con‐
34 tinues in other specified databases, if any.
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38 -b, --basename
39 Match only the base name against the specified patterns. This
40 is the opposite of --wholename.
41 -c, --count
44 Instead of writing file names on standard output, write the num‐
45 ber of matching entries only.
46 -d, --database DBPATH
49 Replace the default database with DBPATH. DBPATH is a :-sepa‐
50 rated list of database file names. If more than one --database
51 option is specified, the resulting path is a concatenation of
52 the separate paths.
53 An empty database file name is replaced by the default database.
55 A database file name - refers to the standard input. Note that
56 a database can be read from the standard input only once.
57 -e, --existing
60 Print only entries that refer to files existing at the time
61 locate is run.
62 -L, --follow
65 When checking whether files exist (if the --existing option is
66 specified), follow trailing symbolic links. This causes broken
67 symbolic links to be omitted from the output.
68 This is the default behavior. The opposite can be specified
70 using --nofollow.
71 -h, --help
74 Write a summary of the available options to standard output and
75 exit successfully.
76 -i, --ignore-case
79 Ignore case distinctions when matching patterns.
80 -l, --limit, -n LIMIT
83 Exit successfully after finding LIMIT entries. If the --count
84 option is specified, the resulting count is also limited to
85 LIMIT.
86 -m, --mmap
89 Ignored, for compatibility with BSD and GNU locate.
90 -P, --nofollow, -H
93 When checking whether files exist (if the --existing option is
94 specified), do not follow trailing symbolic links. This causes
95 broken symbolic links to be reported like other files.
96 This is the opposite of --follow.
98 -0, --null
101 Separate the entries on output using the ASCII NUL character
102 instead of writing each entry on a separate line. This option
103 is designed for interoperability with the --null option of GNU
104 xargs(1).
105 -S, --statistics
108 Write statistics about each read database to standard output
109 instead of searching for files and exit successfully.
110 -q, --quiet
113 Write no messages about errors encountered while reading and
114 processing databases.
115 -r, --regexp REGEXP
118 Search for a basic regexp REGEXP. No PATTERNs are allowed if
119 this option is used, but this option can be specified multiple
120 times.
121 --regex
124 Interpret all PATTERNs as extended regexps.
125 -s, --stdio
128 Ignored, for compatibility with BSD and GNU locate.
129 -V, --version
132 Write information about the version and licence of locate on
133 standard output and exit successfully.
134 -w, --wholename
137 Match only the whole path name against the specified patterns.
138 This is the default behavior. The opposite can be specified
140 using --basename.
141
144 To search for a file named exactly NAME (not *NAME*), use
145 locate -b '\NAME'
146 Because \ is a globbing character, this disables the implicit replace‐
147 ment of NAME by *NAME*.
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151 /var/lib/mlocate/mlocate.db
152 The database searched by default.
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156 LOCATE_PATH
157 Path to additional databases, added after the default database
158 or the databases specified using the --database option.
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162 The order in which the requested databases are processed is unspeci‐
163 fied, which allows locate to reorder the database path for security
164 reasons.
165 locate attempts to be compatible to slocate (without the options used
167 for creating databases) and GNU locate, in that order. This is the
168 reason for the impractical default --follow option and for the confus‐
169 ing set of --regex and --regexp options.
170 The short spelling of the -r option is incompatible to GNU locate,
172 where it corresponds to the --regex option. Use the long option names
173 to avoid confusion.
174 The LOCATE_PATH environment variable replaces the default database in
176 BSD and GNU locate, but it is added to other databases in this imple‐
177 mentation and slocate.
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181 Miloslav Trmac <mitr@redhat.com>
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185 updatedb(8)
186mlocate Jul 2005 locate(1)