Search (Locate and Find Command)
In Linux we can use Locate and Find command to search file or directory or content of the file.
- locate— The locate command is used to locate a file in a Linux system, just like the search command in Windows. This command is useful when you don’t know where a file is saved or the actual name of the file. Using the -i argument with the command helps to ignore the case. So, if you want a file that has the word “hello”, it gives the list of all the files in your Linux system containing the word “hello” when you type in “locate -i hello”. If you remember two words, you can separate them using an asterisk (*). For example, to locate a file containing the words “hello” and “this”, you can use the command “locate -i *hello*this”
Locate maintain database of files (mlocate.db).
/var/lib/mlocate/mlocate.db
The database can be updated using updatedb.
Review Your Locate Database
2. Find: Search in the real system and it slower. Also has option to search using size, modification time etc.
$ find [where to start searching from] [expression determines what to find] [-options] [what to find]
find . –iname testfile.txt – Find a file called testfile.txt in current and sub-directories.
find /home –iname *.jpg – Find all .jpg files in the /home and its sub-directories.
