NAME¶
locate - list files in databases that match a pattern
SYNOPSIS¶
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 ]
[--max-database-age D] [-P | -H | --nofollow] [-L | --follow] [--version] [-A
| --all] [-p | --print] [--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(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.
OPTIONS¶
- -0, --null
- Use ASCII NUL as a separator, instead of newline.
- -A, --all
- Print only names which match all non-option arguments, not
those matching one or more non-option arguments.
- -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'.
- -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.
- --help
- Print a summary of the options to locate and
exit.
- -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.
- -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.
- --max-database-age D
- Normally, locate will issue a warning message when
it searches a database which is more than 8 days old. This option changes
that value to something other than 8. The effect of specifying a negative
value is undefined.
- -m, --mmap
- Accepted but does nothing, for compatibility with BSD
locate.
- -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.
- -p, --print
- Print search results when they normally would not, because
of the presence of --statistics (-S) or --count (-c).
- -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.
- --version
- Print the version number of locate and exit.
- -w, --wholename
- Match against the whole name of the file as listed in the
database. This is the default.
ENVIRONMENT¶
- 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.
SEE ALSO¶
find(1),
locatedb(5),
updatedb(1),
xargs(1),
glob(3),
Finding Files (on-line in Info, or printed)
HISTORY¶
The
locate program started life as the BSD fast find program, contributed
to BSD by James A. Woods. This was described by his paper
Finding Files
Fast which was published in Usenix
;login:, Vol 8, No 1,
February/March, 1983, pp. 8-10. When the
find program began to assume a
default
-print action if no action was specified, this changed the
interpretation of
find pattern. The BSD developers therefore
moved the fast find functionality into
locate. The GNU implementation
of
locate appears to be derived from the same code.
Significant changes to
locate in reverse order:
| 4.3.7 |
Byte-order independent support for old database format |
| 4.3.3 |
locate -i supports multi-byte characters correctly |
| |
Introduced --max_db_age |
| 4.3.2 |
Support for the slocate database format |
| 4.2.22 |
Introduced the --all option |
| 4.2.15 |
Introduced the --regex option |
| 4.2.14 |
Introduced options -L, -P, -H |
| 4.2.12 |
Empty items in LOCATE_PATH now indicate the default
database |
| 4.2.11 |
Introduced the --statistics option |
| 4.2.4 |
Introduced --count and --limit |
| 4.2.0 |
Glob characters cause matching against the whole file name |
| 4.0 |
Introduced the LOCATE02 database format |
| 3.7 |
Locate can search multiple databases |
BUGS¶
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.
