Mlocate
mlocate is a command line utility in Linux for quickly locating files based on their name or a regular expression. It maintains a database of files and directories to allow fast lookups compared to searching the whole file system.
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locate-files
find-files
mlocate: Fast File Lookup Utility
mlocate is a command line utility in Linux for quickly locating files based on their name or a regular expression. It maintains a database of files and directories to allow fast lookups compared to searching the whole file system.
What is Mlocate?
mlocate is a Linux command line utility that allows users to quickly find files and directories based on their names or regular expressions. It works by maintaining a database of all files and directories on the system. This allows mlocate to search this database very quickly when looking up file paths, compared to searching the actual filesystem which can be quite slow.
Some key features of mlocate include:
- Very fast lookups - since it searches an indexed database instead of the filesystem directly.
- Regular expression support - allows matching patterns in file paths.
- Automatic database updates - the database is updated regularly to keep track of new files.
- Security conscious - the database contents are permission controlled.
Some use cases for mlocate:
- Finding config files when you know the file name but not the location.
- Searching log files matching a certain pattern.
- Checking for world-writable files.
- Finding files before opening them in an editor or other program.
Overall, mlocate is a very fast and user-friendly command line tool for when you need to search for files by name or match patterns. It saves users time compared to recursively searching directories for relevant files.
Mlocate Features
Features
- Fast file lookup using filename database
- Supports regular expressions for flexible searches
- Database updated automatically in background
- Handles files moved or deleted after database update
- Ignores binary files by default to avoid slow searches
- Indexes paths as well as filenames for more targeted results
Pricing
- Open Source
Pros
Very fast compared to searching filesystem directly
Powerful regex support for complex queries
Keeps index updated automatically
Finds files even if moved/renamed after indexing
Lightweight and low system resource usage
Cons
Not useful if filename unknown
Database can get large for huge filesystems
Must update database manually after major filesystem changes
Not designed for interactive browsing of files
The Best Mlocate Alternatives
Top Os & Utilities and File Management and other similar apps like Mlocate
Here are some alternatives to Mlocate:
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