locate - list files in databases that match a pattern

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 ] [-P | -H | --nofollow] [-L | --follow] [--version] [-A | --all] [-p | --print] [--help] pattern...

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.

-A, --all

Print only names which match all non-option arguments, not those matching one or more non-option arguments.

-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.

-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.

-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.

-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.

-m, --mmap

Accepted but does nothing, for compatibility with BSD locate.

-0, --null

Use ASCII NUL as a separator, instead of newline.

-p, --print

Print search results when they normally would not, because of the presence of --statistics (-S) or --count (-c).

-w, --wholename

Match against the whole name of the file as listed in the database. This is the default.

-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'.

-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 and find, except for the fact that "." will match a newline. 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.

-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 ouptut of locate -S is different for the GNU and BSD implementations of locate.

--help

Print a summary of the options to locate and exit.

--version

Print the version number of locate and exit.

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.

find(1), locatedb(5), updatedb(1), xargs(1), glob(3), Finding Files (on-line in Info, or printed)

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.

The best way to report a bug is to use the form at http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?group=findutils. The reason for this is that you will then be able to track progress in fixing the problem. Other comments about locate(1) and about the findutils package in general can be sent to the bug-findutils mailing list. To join the list, send email to bug-findutils-request@gnu.org.