Linux locate command: Find Files and Directories Quickly and Efficiently

This is quick guide howto find files and directories quick and efficiently on Linux with locate command. Linux find command is outdated, slow and complicated to use, so locate command is much better option.

Locate basic usage find files and directories

locate file
# example
locate httpd.conf

locate path
# example
locate /X11/

Find (locate) ignore-case (not case sensitive)

locate -i file
# example
locate -i netbeans

Find (locate) only file name (basename)

locate -b file
# example
locate -b shadow

Limit locate output

locate -l 100 file
# example
locate -l 50 conf

Print number of found entries

locate -c file
# example
locate -c conf

Print locate statistics

locate -S

Find (locate) with full file info

Simply locate something and pipe output to ls command.

locate file |xargs ls -lah

Want to know even more

Check help and manual

locate --help
man locate