LOCATE(1L)LOCATE(1L)NAMElocate - list files in databases that match a pattern
SYNOPSISlocate [-d path] [--database=path] pattern...
DESCRIPTION
This manual page documents the GNU version of locate. For each given
pattern, locate searches one or more databases of file pathnames and
displays the pathnames that contain the pattern. Patterns can contain
shell-style metacharacters: `*', `?', and `[]'. The metacharacters do
not treat `/' or `.' specially. 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 pathnames in the database that contain that string any‐
where. If a pattern does contain metacharacters, it only displays
pathnames 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 pathname.
The filename databases contain lists of the files that were on the sys‐
tem whenever the database was last updated. The pathname of the
default database, the frequency with which it is updated, and the
directories for which it contains entries are configurable by the sys‐
tem administrator.
locate supports having multiple filename databases; for example, there
could be one on each filesystem. You can tell locate to use alternate
filename databases instead of the default one by giving a colon-sepa‐
rated list of database pathnames as either an argument to the -d or
--database options or as the value of the environment variable
LOCATE_PATH. The option overrides the environment variable if both are
used.
LOCATE(1L)