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.

       -p, --ignore-spaces
              Ignore punctuation and spaces when matching patterns.

       -t, --transliterate
              Ignore accents using iconv transliteration 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), iconv(1),

mlocate                                             Sep 2012                                           locate(1)