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 standard output, one per line.

       If --regex is not specified, PATTERNs can contain  globbing  characters.   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 --version options.  If no match was found  or  a  fatal  error  was  encountered,
       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 specified 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 character 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 output 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 patterns.

              This is the default behavior.  The opposite can be specified 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 database 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)