LOCATE(1L) UNIX Programmer's Manual LOCATE(1L)NAME
locate - list files in databases that match a pattern
SYNOPSIS
locate [-d path] [--database=path] [--version] [--help] pat-
tern...
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 pat-
tern. 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 metacharac-
ters - 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 pat-
terns 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 data-
base, the frequency with which the databases are updated,
and the directories for which they contain entries; see
updatedb(1L).
OPTIONS-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 over-
rides the environment variable if both are used.
The file name database format changed starting with GNU find
and locate version 4.0 to allow machines with diffent 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.
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LOCATE(1L) UNIX Programmer's Manual LOCATE(1L)--help
Print a summary of the options to locate and exit.
--version
Print the version number of locate and exit.
ENVIRONMENT
LOCATE_PATH
Colon-separated list of databases to search.
SEE ALSOfind(1L), locatedb(5L), updatedb(1L), xargs(1L) Finding
Files (on-line in Info, or printed)
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