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Search Filenames

17 Jun 2018

Often we want to find a file on our system. The locate command offers a quick method for searching for all files in the system containing a string. In our example, we look for all files with bashrc in the name.

Search Filenames In System

locate bashrc

/etc/bash.bashrc
/etc/skel/.bashrc
/home/chris/.bashrc
/home/chris/.bashrc-anaconda3.bak
/home/chris/anaconda3/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pexpect/bashrc.sh
/home/chris/anaconda3/pkgs/pexpect-4.2.1-py36h3b9d41b_0/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pexpect/bashrc.sh
/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

Note that locate might not find recently created files. This is because the database of filenames locate uses is only generated periodically. We can update this database manually using sudo updatedb.