Post Type:
Tip
This is short and sweet. Use of the locate command in the terminal can help you find the destination of a file. For instance, tonight I was trying to find out where the tomcat web server start-up script was stored.
I knew it was called startup.sh so I typed at the prompt: $>locate startup.sh This returned /usr/local/tomcat/bin/startup.sh
If you add the -i switch then you get a case insensitive search so I could do $> locate -i StaRtUP.Sh and it will still return /usr/local/tomcat/bin/startup.sh
Kinda basic stuff, but I hope this helps someone.
Ive also included this nice tutorial that explains things in a bit more detail: http://www.lockergnome.com/linux/2004/11/25/how-to-find-files-in-linux-using-locate/
Delicious
Digg
StumbleUpon
Comments
cheers
To add to this; the above will locate files as of the start up and doesn't keep an update until reboot. Which if the files where there before you started, your laughing. If it's something you've done whilst your machines on, not so good.
Well a quick;
sudo updatedb # only sudo if your not root of course
Will update the files for you. The locate command may also be best used if you using ubuntu with a sudo before hand as well. I think the command looks as though it will be replaced eventually by slocate which is the secure option. Without doubt this is the fastest way to locate files as rather than search the file system it search a list of all known files on the system.
Hope that helps, and wicked tip huntly, well glad when i found it,
Arron M Finnon
President
Abertay Linux Society