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LOCATE(1)               NetBSD General Commands Manual               LOCATE(1)


NAME

     locate -- find files


SYNOPSIS

     locate [-d dbpath] pattern


DESCRIPTION

     locate searches a database for all pathnames which match the specified
     pattern.  The database is recomputed periodically, and contains the path-
     names of all files which are publicly accessible.

     Shell globbing and quoting characters (``*'', ``?'', ``\'', ``['' and
     ``]'') may be used in pattern, although they will have to be escaped from
     the shell.  Preceding any character with a backslash (``\'') eliminates
     any special meaning which it may have.  The matching differs in that no
     characters must be matched explicitly, including slashes (``/'').

     As a special case, a pattern containing no globbing characters (``foo'')
     is matched as though it were ``*foo*''.

     Options:

     -d dbpath
           Sets the list of databases to search to dbpath which can name one
           or more database files separated by ``:'', an empty component in
           the list represents the default database.  The environment variable
           LOCATE_PATH has the same effect.


EXIT STATUS

     locate exits with a 0 if a match is found, and >0 if no match is found or
     if another problem (such as a missing or corrupted database file) is
     encountered.


FILES

     /var/db/locate.database       Default database
     /usr/libexec/locate.updatedb  Script to update database.


SEE ALSO

     find(1), fnmatch(3), locate.conf(5), weekly.conf(5)

     Woods, James A., "Finding Files Fast", ;login, 8:1, pp. 8-10, 1983.


HISTORY

     The locate command appeared in 4.4BSD.

NetBSD 3.1                      April 19, 2004                      NetBSD 3.1