locate(1)

NAME
locate - find files

SYNOPSIS
/usr/local/bin/locate pattern

DESCRIPTION
Locate searches a database for all pathnames which match the specified pattern. The database is recomputed periodically, and contains the pathnames 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*''.

Note that /usr/local/lib/locate/locate.updatedb must be executed periodically from cron(8) in order to keep the database for this command up to date. Symptoms of not running this update procedure include not being able to locate user files, especially new ones.

FILES

/var/db/locate.database

SEE ALSO
find(1)

HISTORY
The locate command appears in BSD 4.4 .