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- NAME
-
- locate
- - list files in databases that match a pattern
- SYNOPSIS
-
- locate
- [-d path] [-database=path] [-version] [-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(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
overrides 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 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.
- -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 ALSO
-
find(1L), locatedb(5L), updatedb(1L), xargs(1L) Finding Files (on-line
in Info, or printed)
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