There may be times when you know a file or directory exists but
you do not know where to find it. There are several commands you
can use to search for it, including find,
locate, and which.
4.7.1. Find
The format of the find command is:
If you do not specify a path, find
starts in the current working directory and looks through all
subdirectories for the specified pattern.
The find command has many options that
you can review by entering man find at a
shell prompt. The most common option is -name, which tells find to search for all files and
directories with a certain string of letters in their name.
The above command searches through the current working directory
for all files with "foo" in their name.
4.7.2.
Locate
The format of the locate command is:
With locate, you can see every file or
directory whose name contains the search criterion. For example, to
search for all files with the word finger
in the name, type:
The locate command uses a database to
locate files and directories that have the word finger in the file or directory name. The search
results could include a file called finger.txt, a file called pointerfinger.txt, a directory named /fingerthumbnails/, and so on. To learn more about
locate, read the locate man page (type man
locate at a shell prompt).
The locate command works very quickly,
as long as the database is up to date. That database is
automatically updated on a nightly basis through a cron job. cron is a small
program that runs in the background, performing various tasks (such
as updating the locate database) at
regularly scheduled intervals. Refer to the Red Hat Enterprise
Linux System Administration Guide for more information on
cron.
To update the database manually, log in as root (type su - at a shell prompt and then your root password)
and type the command updatedb.
After a few minutes, the slocate
database that is used by the locate
command is updated.
When you are done working as root, type exit at the prompt; you are returned to your user
account.
