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)