locate - phpMan

locate(1) locate(1)

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.

PATTERNs can contains 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;
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
-b, --basename
Match only the base name against the specified patterns.

-c, --count
Instead of writing file names on standard output, write the number of match-
ing 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.

-h, --help
Write a summary of the available options to standard output and exit sucess-
fully.

-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.

-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 intero-
prerability 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 IREGEXP
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 licence of locate on standard output
and exit sucessfully.

-w, --wholename
Match only the whole path name against the specified patterns.

This is the default behavior.

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
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 corre-
sponds 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 AT redhat.com>