8.2 Invoking locate

locate [option…] pattern…

For each pattern given locate searches one or more file name databases returning each match of pattern.

--all

-A

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

--basename

-b

The specified pattern is matched against just the last component of the name of a file in the locate database. This last component is also called the “base name”. For example, the base name of /tmp/mystuff/foo.old.c is foo.old.c. If the pattern contains metacharacters, it must match the base name exactly. If not, it must match part of the base name.

--count

-c

Instead of printing the matched file names, just print the total number of matches found, unless ‘--print’ (‘-p’) is also present.

--database=path

-d path

Instead of searching the default locate database /usr/local/var/locatedb, locate searches 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 path (that is, a leading or trailing colon, or two colons in a row) are taken to stand for 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 (but a warning message is printed).

--existing

-e

Only print out such names which currently exist (instead of such names which existed when the database was created). Note that this may slow down the program a lot, if there are many matches in the database. The way in which broken symbolic links are treated is affected by the ‘-L’, ‘-P’ and ‘-H’ options. Please note that it is possible for the file to be deleted after locate has checked that it exists, but before you use it. This option is automatically turned on when reading an slocate database in secure mode (see slocate Database Format).

--non-existing

-E

Only print out such names which currently do not exist (instead of such names which existed when the database was created). Note that this may slow down the program a lot, if there are many matches in the database. The way in which broken symbolic links are treated is affected by the ‘-L’, ‘-P’ and ‘-H’ options. Please note that locate checks that the file does not exist, but a file of the same name might be created after locate’s check but before you read locate’s output.

--follow

-L

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 behaviour.

--nofollow

-P

-H

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’.

--ignore-case

-i

Ignore case distinctions in both the pattern and the file names.

--limit=N

-l N

Limit the number of results printed to N. When used with the ‘--count’ option, the value printed will never be larger than this limit.

--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.

--mmap

-m

Accepted but does nothing. The option is supported only to provide compatibility with BSD’s locate.

--null

-0

Results are separated with the ASCII NUL character rather than the newline character. To get the full benefit of this option, use the new locate database format (that is the default anyway).

--print

-p

Print search results when they normally would not be due to use of ‘--statistics’ (‘-S’) or ‘--count’ (‘-c’).

--wholename

-w

The specified pattern is matched against the whole name of the file in the locate database. If the pattern contains metacharacters, it must match exactly. If not, it must match part of the whole file name. This is the default behaviour.

--regex

-r

Instead of using substring or shell glob matching, the pattern specified on the command line is understood to be a regular expression. GNU Emacs-style regular expressions are assumed unless the ‘--regextype’ option is also given. File names from the locate database are matched using the specified regular expression. If the ‘-i’ flag is also given, matching is case-insensitive. Matches are performed against the whole path name, and so by default a pathname will be matched if any part of it matches the specified regular expression. The regular expression may use ‘^’ or ‘$’ to anchor a match at the beginning or end of a pathname.

--regextype

This option changes the regular expression syntax and behaviour used by the ‘--regex’ option. Regular Expressions for more information on the regular expression dialects understood by GNU findutils.

--stdio

-s

Accepted but does nothing. The option is supported only to provide compatibility with BSD’s locate.

--statistics

-S

Print some summary information for each locate database. No search is performed unless non-option arguments are given. Although the BSD version of locate also has this option, the format of the output is different.

--help

Print a summary of the command line usage for locate and exit.

--version

Print the version number of locate and exit.