Find out the locate command in Linux

One of the most common activities when working on Linux is finding files and folders. On Linux systems, there are several commands that allow you to search for files, in which find and locate are the most used commands.

locate command is the fastest and easiest way to search for files, as well as folders by name.

In this tutorial, TipsMake.com will explain how to use the locate command in Linux.

Locate settings (locate command not found)

Depending on the distribution and how the system is provided, locate packages can be preinstalled on Linux systems.

To check if the locate utility is installed on your system, open the terminal, type 'locate' and press Enter . If the package is installed, the system will display the message " locate: no pattern to search for specified ", otherwise you will see something like ' locate command not found '.

If the locate not installed, you can easily install it with the distribution package manager.

Install locate on Ubuntu and Debian

 $ sudo apt update $ sudo apt install mlocate 

Install locate on CentOS and Fedora

 $ sudo yum install mlocate 

How to locate command

locate command searches for a certain pattern through the database file created by the updatedb command. The results are displayed on the screen, each result on one line.

During the installation of the mlocate package, a cron job is created to run the updatedb command every 24 hours. This ensures the database is updated regularly. For more information about cron jobs, check the file /etc/cron.daily/mlocate.

The database can be manually updated by running updatedb with root or user with sudo privileges:

 $ sudo updatedb 

The update process will take some time, depending on the number of files and folders, as well as your system speed.

Files created after updating the database will not be displayed in the locate command results.

Compared to the more powerful find command when searching for locate files and command systems that operate faster but lack many features and can only be searched by file name.

How to use the locate command

The syntax of the locate command is as follows:

 locate [OPTION] PATTERN. 

In the most basic form, when used without any options, the locate command will print the absolute path of all files and folders that match the search pattern and the user has the right to read the file in the link. search results.

For example, to search for a file called .bashrc, enter:

 $ locate .bashrc 

The output will include the names of all files containing the .bashrc string in their name:

 /etc/bash.bashrc /etc/skel/.bashrc /home/linuxize/.bashrc /usr/share/base-files/dot.bashrc /usr/share/doc/adduser/examples/adduser.local.conf.examples/bash.bashrc /usr/share/doc/adduser/examples/adduser.local.conf.examples/skel/dot.bashrc 

The /root/.bashrc file will not be displayed, because the example has run the command as a normal user, without access to the / root directory .

If the result list is long, for easier reading, you can move the output to less :

 $ locate .bashrc | less 

The locate command also accepts patterns that contain wildcards such as * . When patterns do not contain these characters, the command will search for * PATTERN * , which is why in the previous example, all files containing the search pattern in their names are displayed.

Wildcards are symbols used to represent zeros, one or more characters. For example, to search all .md files on the system you will use:

 $ locate *.md 

To limit search results, use the -n option followed by the number of results you want displayed. For example, the following command will search all .py files and display only 10 results:

 $ locate -n 10 *.py 

By default, locate commands perform a case-sensitive search. The -i (--ignore-case) option tells the locate command to run a search that is not case sensitive.

 $ locate -i readme.md 

Output is as follows:

 /home/linuxize/p1/readme.md /home/linuxize/p2/README.md /home/linuxize/p3/ReadMe.md 

To display the number of all matching items, use the -c (--count) option. The following command will return the number of all .bashrc files in their name:

 $ locate -c .bashrc 

Output:

 6 

By default, locate commands do not check if the files found still exist on the file system. If you deleted a file after updating the latest database and the file matches the search pattern, it will be included in the results.

To show only the names of files that still exist at the time the locate command is run, use the -e (--existing) option. For example, the following command will only return the existing .json files:

 $ locate -e *.json 

If you need to run a more complex search, you can use the -r (--regrec) option, which allows you to search using regular expressions instead of patterns. This option can be specified multiple times.

For example, to search all .mp4 and .avi files on your system, not case sensitive, you will run:

 $ locate --regex -i "(.mp4|.avi)" 

Locate command searches the file system for files and directories whose names match a given pattern. The command syntax is easy to remember and the results are displayed almost immediately.

For more information about all available options for the locate command, type man locate in the terminal.

If you have any questions, please leave a comment in the comment section below!