LOCATE(1) LOCATE(1) NAME locate - list files in databases that match a pattern SYNOPSIS locate [-d path | --database=path] [-e | --existing] [-i | --ignore-case] [-0 | --null] [-c | --count] [-w | --wholename] [-b | --basename] [-l N | --limit=N] [-S | --statistics] [-r | --regex ] [-P | -H | --nofollow] [-L | --follow] [--version] [--help] pattern... DESCRIPTION This manual page documents the GNU version of locate. For each given pattern, locate searches one or more databases of file names and displays the file names that contain the pattern. Patterns can contain shell-style metacharacters: `*', `?', and `[]'. The metacharacters do not treat `/' or `.' specially. Therefore, a pat- tern `foo*bar' can match a file name that contains `foo3/bar', and a pattern `*duck*' can match a file name that contains `lake/.ducky'. Patterns that contain metacharacters should be quoted to protect them from expansion by the shell. If a pattern is a plain string -- it contains no metacharacters -- locate displays all file names in the database that contain that string anywhere. If a pat- tern does contain metacharacters, locate only displays file names that match the pattern exactly. As a result, patterns that contain metacharacters should usually begin with a `*', and will most often end with one as well. The exceptions are patterns that are intended to explicitly match the beginning or end of a file name. The file name databases contain lists of files that were on the system when the databases were last updated. The system administrator can choose the file name of the default database, the frequency with which the databases are updated, and the directories for which they contain entries; see updatedb(1). OPTIONS -c, --count Instead of printing the matched filenames, just print the total number of matches we found. -d path, --database=path Instead of searching the default file name data- base, search the file name databases in path, which is a colon-separated list of database file names. You can also use the environment variable LOCATE_PATH to set the list of database files to search. The option overrides the environment variable if both are used. Empty elements in the path are taken to be synonyms for the file name of the default database. The file name database format changed starting with GNU find and locate version 4.0 to allow machines with diffent byte orderings to share the databases. This version of locate can automati- cally recognize and read databases produced for older versions of GNU locate or Unix versions of locate or find. Support for the old locate data- base format will be discontinued in a future release. -e, --existing Only print out such names that currently exist (instead of such names that existed when the database was created). Note that this may slow down the program a lot, if there are many matches in the database. If you are using this option within a program, please note that it is possible for the file to be deleted after locate has checked that it exists, but before you use it. -L, --follow If testing for the existence of files (with the -e option), omit broken symbolic links. This is the default. -P, -H, --nofollow If testing for the existence of files (with the -e option), treat broken symbolic links count as if they were exiting files. The -H form of this option is provided purely for similarity with find; the use of -P is recommended over -H. -i, --ignore-case Ignore case distinctions in both the pattern and the file names. -l N, --limit=N Limit the number of matches to N. If a limit is set via this option, the number of results printed for the -c option will never be larger than this number. -m, --mmap Accepted but does nothing, for compatibility with BSD locate. -0, --null Use ASCII NUL as a separator, instead of newline. -w, --wholename Match against the whole name of the file as listed in the database. This is the default. -b, --basename Results are considered to match if the pattern specified matches the final component of the name of a file as listed in the database. This final component is usually referred to as the `base name'. -r, --regex The pattern specified on the command line is understood to be a POSIX exteded regular expres- sion, as opposed to a glob pattern. Filenames whose full paths match the specified regular expression are printed (or, in the case of the -c option, counted). If you wish to anchor your regular expression at the ends of the full path name, then as is usual with regular expressions, you should use the characters ^ and $ to signify this. Newline is not considered to be special. -s, --stdio Accepted but does nothing, for compatibility with BSD locate. -S, --statistics Print various statistics about each locate database and then exit without performing a search. Any patterns given on the command line are ignored. For compatibility with BSD, -S is accepted as a synonym for --statistics. --help Print a summary of the options to locate and exit. --version Print the version number of locate and exit. ENVIRONMENT LOCATE_PATH Colon-separated list of databases to search. If the value has a leading or trailing colon, or has two colons in a row, you may get results that vary between different versions of locate. SEE ALSO find(1), locatedb(5), updatedb(1), xargs(1), glob(3),egex(7), Finding Files (on-line in Info, or printed) BUGS The locate database correctly handles filenames contain- ing newlines, but only if the system's sort command has a working -z option. If you suspect that locate may need to return filenames containing newlines, consider using its --null option. The best way to report a bug is to use the form at http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?group=findutils. The rea- son for this is that you will then be able to track progress in fixing the problem. Other comments about locate(1) and about the findutils package in general can be sent to the bug-findutils mailing list. To join the list, send email to bug-findutils-request@gnu.org. LOCATE(1)