locate(1)                General Commands Manual                locate(1)

NAME
       locate - find files by name

SYNOPSIS
       locate [OPTION]... PATTERN...

DESCRIPTION
       locate  reads  one  or  more databases prepared by updatedb(8) and
       writes file names matching at least one of the PATTERNs  to  stan‐
       dard output, one per line.

       If --regex is not specified, PATTERNs can contain globbing charac‐
       ters.  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.

EXIT STATUS
       locate exits with status 0 if any match was found or if locate was
       invoked with one of the --limit 0, --help, --statistics or  --ver‐
       sion  options.  If no match was found or a fatal error was encoun‐
       tered, locate exits with status 1.

       Errors encountered while reading a database are not fatal,  search
       continues in other specified databases, if any.

OPTIONS
       -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 speci‐
              fied 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  charac‐
              ter 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 out‐
              put 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  pat‐
              terns.

              This  is  the default behavior.  The opposite can be speci‐
              fied using --basename.

EXAMPLES
       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*.

FILES
       /var/lib/mlocate/mlocate.db
              The database searched by default.

ENVIRONMENT
       LOCATE_PATH
              Path to additional databases, added after the default data‐
              base  or  the  databases  specified  using  the  --database
              option.

NOTES
       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.

AUTHOR
       Miloslav Trmac <mitr@redhat.com>

SEE ALSO
       updatedb(8)

mlocate                          Sep 2012                       locate(1)