LOCATE(1)						    BSD 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
     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*''.

     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.

FILES

     /var/db/locate.database	   Default database

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.

SEE ALSO

     find(1), fnmatch(3), locate.conf(5), weekly.conf(5), locate.updatedb(8)

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

HISTORY

     The locate command appeared in 4.4BSD.

BSD
								  April 19, 2004							       BSD