The fastest way to find files by filename — mlocate (locate commands)

One of the best way for quickly finding files by filename is the locatecommand. The locate command reads one or more databases prepared by updatedb and writes file names matching at least one of the patterns to standard output, one per line immediately.

Using locate & updatedb to search file

Finding files by filename (and path)
Just use simple syntax:

locate {file-name-or-path}

If the command is not found, the mlocate package is probably not installed on your system. You need to install it first (see intruction below).

The result will appear immediately (without delay). You can further use grepcommand to filter out some unneeded results. If no results found, your DB is probably too old. You would like to update it.

Update the search database
Note: You don’t need to execute this command every time you want to search for file. Just run it something like every 1 month or when you cannot find something.

sudo updatedb

More advanced syntax

Limit the number of results to 15:

locate -n 15 ghost

Using wildcast:

locate -n 20 "summer*.html"

Ignoring case:

locate -n 20 -i "sUMmer*.Html"

Even with regular expression (most advanced):
Locate all file in my home folder with the text ssh in file path:

locate -r "^/home/thuc/.*ssh.*$"

How to install mlocate package

Ubuntu

Step 1. Install mlocate package

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install mlocate

Step 2. Update the search database

sudo updatedb

CentOS

Step 1. Install mlocate package
As a matter of best practice we’ll update our packages:

sudo yum -y update

Then let’s install mlocate and any required packages:

sudo yum -y install mlocate

Step 2. Update the search database
The following command will update the search databases:

sudo updatedb

Happy searching!