locate(1) General Commands Manual locate(1)
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)
findutils 4.9.0 - Generated Fri Aug 12 16:32:02 CDT 2022