Provided by: locate_4.9.0-5_amd64 bug

NAME

       locate - list files in databases that match a pattern

SYNOPSIS

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

       If locate's output is going to a terminal, unusual characters in the output are escaped in
       the  same way as for the -print action of the find command.  If the output is not going to
       a terminal, file names are printed exactly as-is.

OPTIONS

       -0, --null
              Use ASCII NUL as a separator, instead of newline.

       -A, --all
              Print only names which match all non-option arguments, not those  matching  one  or
              more non-option arguments.

       -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'.

       -c, --count
              Instead  of  printing the matched filenames, just print the total number of matches
              we found, unless --print (-p) is also present.

       -d path, --database=path
              Instead of searching the default file name database, 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.   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).

              The file name database format changed starting with GNU find and locate version 4.0
              to allow machines with different byte  orderings  to  share  the  databases.   This
              version of locate can automatically recognize and read databases produced for older
              versions of GNU locate or Unix versions of locate or find.   Support  for  the  old
              locate database 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.

       -E, --non-existing
              Only  print  out such names that currently do not 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.

       --help Print a summary of the options to locate and exit.

       -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.

       -L, --follow
              If testing for the existence of files (with the -e or -E options), consider  broken
              symbolic links to be non-existing.   This is the default.

       --max-database-age D
              Normally,  locate will issue a warning message when it searches a database which is
              more than 8 days old.  This option changes that value to something  other  than  8.
              The effect of specifying a negative value is undefined.

       -m, --mmap
              Accepted but does nothing, for compatibility with BSD locate.

       -P, -H, --nofollow
              If  testing  for  the  existence of files (with the -e or -E options), treat broken
              symbolic links as if they were existing files.  The  -H  form  of  this  option  is
              provided purely for similarity with find; the use of -P is recommended over -H.

       -p, --print
              Print  search  results  when  they  normally  would not, because of the presence of
              --statistics (-S) or --count (-c).

       -r, --regex
              The pattern specified on the command line is understood to be a regular expression,
              as  opposed  to a glob pattern.  The Regular expressions work in the same was as in
              emacs except for the fact that "." will match a newline.  GNU find  uses  the  same
              regular  expressions.   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.

       --regextype R
              Use regular expression dialect R.  Supported dialects include  `findutils-default',
              `posix-awk', `posix-basic', `posix-egrep', `posix-extended', `posix-minimal-basic',
              `awk', `ed', `egrep', `emacs',  `gnu-awk',  `grep'  and  `sed'.   See  the  Texinfo
              documentation for a detailed explanation of these dialects.

       -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, unless non-option arguments are given.  For compatibility with
              BSD,  -S  is accepted as a synonym for --statistics.  However, the output of locate
              -S is different for the GNU and BSD implementations of locate.

       --version
              Print the version number of locate and exit.

       -w, --wholename
              Match against the whole name of the file as listed in the database.   This  is  the
              default.

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.

HISTORY

       The  locate program started life as the BSD fast find program, contributed to BSD by James
       A. Woods.  This was described by his paper Finding  Files  Fast  which  was  published  in
       Usenix ;login:, Vol 8, No 1, February/March, 1983, pp. 8-10.   When the find program began
       to assume  a  default  -print  action  if  no  action  was  specified,  this  changed  the
       interpretation  of  find  pattern.   The  BSD  developers  therefore  moved  the fast find
       functionality into locate.  The GNU implementation of locate appears to  be  derived  from
       the same code.

       Significant changes to locate in reverse order:

       4.3.7     Byte-order independent support for old database format
       4.3.3     locate -i supports multi-byte characters correctly
                 Introduced --max_db_age
       4.3.2     Support for the slocate database format
       4.2.22    Introduced the --all option
       4.2.15    Introduced the --regex option
       4.2.14    Introduced options -L, -P, -H
       4.2.12    Empty items in LOCATE_PATH now indicate the default database
       4.2.11    Introduced the --statistics option
       4.2.4     Introduced --count and --limit
       4.2.0     Glob characters cause matching against the whole file name
       4.0       Introduced the LOCATE02 database format
       3.7       Locate can search multiple databases

BUGS

       The  locate  database  correctly  handles  filenames  containing 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.

REPORTING BUGS

       GNU findutils online help: <https://www.gnu.org/software/findutils/#get-help>
       Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>

       Report any other issue via the form at the GNU Savannah bug tracker:
              <https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?group=findutils>
       General  topics about the GNU findutils package are discussed at the bug-findutils mailing
       list:
              <https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/bug-findutils>

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright © 1994-2022 Free Software Foundation, Inc.  License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or
       later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
       This  is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.  There is NO WARRANTY,
       to the extent permitted by law.

SEE ALSO

       find(1), updatedb(1), xargs(1), glob(3), locatedb(5)

       Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/findutils/locate>
       or available locally via: info locate

                                                                                        LOCATE(1)