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.\"	@(#)locate.1	5.1 (Berkeley) 03/06/90
.\"
.TH LOCATE 1 ""
.UC 7
.SH NAME
locate \- find files
.SH SYNOPSIS
.ft B
locate pattern
.ft R
.SH DESCRIPTION
.I Locate
searches a database for all pathnames which match the specified
.IR pattern .
The database is recomputed periodically, and contains the pathnames
of all files which are publicly accessible.
.PP
Shell globbing and quoting characters (``*'', ``?'', ``\e'', ``['', and
``]'') may be used in
.IR pattern ,
although they will have to be escaped from the shell.
Preceding any character with a backslash (``\e'') eliminates any special
meaning which it may have.
The matching differs in that no characters must be matched explicitly,
including slashes (``/'').
.PP
As a special case, a pattern containing no globbing characters (``foo'')
is matched as though it were ``*foo*''.
.SH FILES
/var/db/locate.database
.SH "SEE ALSO"
find(1), fnmatch(3)
.br
Paper in February, 1983 issue of the USENIX publication
.I ;login:.