locate

output files in databases that match a pattern

GNU version of locate.

⌘ MAC OS

locate [-d path | --database=path]
[-e | -E | --[non-]existing]
[-i | --ignore-case]
[-0 | --null]
[-c | --count]
[-l N | --limit=N]
[--version]
[--help]
[-w | --wholename] | [-b | --basename]
[-S | --statistics]
[-r | --regex ]
[-P | | -H | --nofollow]
[-L | --follow]
[-A | --all]
[-p | --print]
pattern …

Searches databases of file names created by updatedb and outputs names that contain pattern.

The databases entries includes all parent directories and / and . are not treated specially in pattern.

If pattern is a plain string (i.e. it contains no metacharacters), all names that contain that string are output as if pattern began and ended with *.
For example: hive is equivelent to *hive* and
foo*bar will match names containing fooMybar as well as foo3/bar and *duck* can match a name that contains lake/.ducky.

Patterns can contain shell-style metacharacters: *, ?, and [] (which may need to be quoted to protect them from shell expansion).
patterns including metacharacters may need to begin with * (to match parent directories).

Output going to a terminal will have control characters escaped in the same way as the -print action of find

-S
--statistics		 Output statistics about the database and exit (unless --print or--count is present) 
Database /var/cache/locate/locatedb is in the GNU LOCATE02 format.
Locate database size: 929379 bytes
All Filenames: 81656
File names have a cumulative length of 3741662 bytes.
Of those file names,

    132 contain whitespace, 
    0 contain newline characters, 
    and 11 contain characters with the high bit set.
Compression ratio 75.16% (higher is better)


⌘
Database: /var/db/locate.database
Compression: Front: 12.16%, Bigram: 58.37%, Total: 8.59%
Filenames: 1118792, Characters: 132012888, Database size: 11336742
Bigram characters: 4719461, Integers: 71763, 8-Bit characters: 2344
-w
--wholename 		Compare whole name (including parent directories). default.
-b
--basename		 only the final component of the name is compared.
-l N
--limit=N		 Limit the number of matches .
-c
--count		 Output a count of matches(not to exceed -l)
-p
--print		 Output results with --statistics or --count
-A
--all 		Output only names which match all non-option arguments, not those matching one or more non-option arguments.
-i
--ignore-case		 
-e
--existing		 Only output names that currently exist (instead those that existed when the database was created).
This will take significantly longer ( It is possible for a file to be deleted after being checked, but before you access it)
-E
--non-existing		 Output names that currently do not exist (i.e. deleted since the database was built)
-L
--follow		 Symbolic links are considered non-existing. Default.
-P
-H
--nofollow		 Symbolic links that are BROKEN are treated as existing files.
-0
--null 		Use ASCII NUL as a separator, instead of newline.
-r
--regex		 pattern is a regular expression as in find except . matchs a newline.
Names whose full paths match the specified regular expression are considered matching.
To anchor regular expression at the ends of the full path name, use ^ and $ .

-d path
--database=path		 databases are located in path, a colon-separated list of database file names overriding $LOCATE_PATH .
Empty elements in the path indicate the default database.
A database can be supplied on stdin using - as an element of path. If more than one element of path is -, later instances are ignored and a warning message is printed.
--help  
--version 

Environment

$LOCATE_PATH   Colon-separated list of databases to search.
With a leading or trailing colon, or has two colons in a row, results vary between different versions of locate.

See

find, locatedb(5), updatedb, xargs, glob.

notes

The locate database handles filenames containing newlines if the system's sort suppports -z . If you suspect that locate may need to return filenames containing newlines, consider using --null.

Use Savannah.gnu.org to submit bugs.

updatedb - update a file name database for locateGNU version

updatedb [options]

The file name databases contain lists of files that were in the directory when the databases were last updated.
The name of the databases is determined when locate and updatedb are configured . The frequency with which the databases are updated and the directories for which they contain entries depend on how often updatedb is run, and with which arguments.

In networked environments, it often makes sense to build a database at the root of each filesystem, containing the entries for that filesystem. updatedb is run for each filesystem on the fileserver where that filesystem is on a local disk, to prevent thrashing the network. Users can select which databases locate searches using an environment variable or command line option; see locate. Databases can not be concatenated together.

--findoptions=option1 -option2… Global options to pass to find ($FIND-OPTIONS). Default is none.
--localpaths=/path1 path2 … Local directories to include. Default is /.
--localuser=user The user( $LOCALUSER ) to search local directories as, using su.
Default is the current user.
--netpaths=path1 path2 …. Network (NFS, AFS, RFS, etc.) directories to include ( $NETPATHS . Default is none.
--netuser=user The user to search network directories as, using su ($NETUSER ).
Default is daemon.
If the user does not have sufficient access a partial database will be updated.
--prunepaths=path1 path2 … Directories to exclude, no trailing slashes ($PRUNEPATHS)
Default /tmp /usr/tmp /var/tmp /afs.
--prunefs=path… File systems to exclude.
($PRUNEFS ) . Default is nfs NFS proc.
--output=dbfile Name of database , default is /var/cache/locate/locatedb.
--old-format Create the database in the old format
--version display the version of updatedb and exit.
--help display a summary of the options to updatedb and exit.

Secure locate

updatedb [-qv][--output=file]

-l level security level. 0 disable, faster. detault 1
-e dir,dir exclude directories
-u starting path at / default.
-U dir starting path at dir
-o filedb
--output=filedb		 output database. default /var/lib/slocate/slocatedb
-c configfile default /etc/updatebd.conf 
 # Filesystems that are pruned from updatedb database
PRUNEFS="auto mqueue proc supermount devpts afs autofs cifs devfs   
            eventpollfs futexfs gfs  
            hugetlbfs iso9660 ncpfs nfs NFS nfs4 nfsd nnpfs 
            pipefs ramfs rpc_pipefs selinuxfs sfs shfs smbfs 
            sockfs spufs subfs sysfs tmpfs udf usbfs vperfctrfs"

# Paths which are pruned from updatedb database
PRUNEPATHS="/tmp /var/tmp /root/.ccache"

# nice value to run at: see -n in nice
NICE="10"

# ionice class to run at: see -c in ionice
IONICE_CLASS="2"

# ionice priority to run at: see -n in ionice
-q quiet no error messages
-v verbose

notes

Correctly handles filenames containing newlines (who makes files with newlines anyway? ed), only if sort has a working -z option. If you suspect that locate may need to return filenames containing newlines, consider using --null .

See

find, locatedb, xargs