Ubuntu Manpage: locate - list files in databases that match a pattern

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.