[ALUG] Re: 'locate' isn't always helpful, how to do better?

[Eur Ing Chris Green]

On Thu, Feb 22, 2007 at 11:22:22AM -0000, Ted Harding wrote:
> On 22-Feb-07 Eur Ing Chris Green wrote:
> > While the 'locate' command is very useful at times, especially if you
> > have lost a specific file it's much less useful when looking for, for
> > example, a directory which has a rather common name.
> > 
> > E.g. I was just trying to find where I have bits of vmware installed,
> > doing a 'locate vmware' just produces zillions of lines of output. I
> > don't (in this case) want to know all the files which are located
> > somewhere below a 'vmware' directory, I just want to know the location
> > of the directory.
> > 
> > I know I can use an RE in locate but it's not all *that* simple to
> > come up with an RE to do it.
> > 
> > I could also use 'find' which would get me exactly the result I want
> > with a fairly straightforward command, but it would take ages.
> > 
> > What I really want is a 'find' that uses the locate database, I'm
> > surprised no one has written one - or have they?
> > 
> > -- 
> > Chris Green
> 
> The following doesn't quite do what you're looking for, since it also
> throws up files named "vmware" as well as directories. However, the
> result is compact, and is produced quite quickly. You could pipe the
> output through a filter which tests for "directory".
> 
> 
> > locate vmware | grep 'vmware$' | sort -u
> /etc/init.d/rc3.d/K22vmware
> /etc/init.d/rc3.d/S01vmware
> /etc/init.d/vmware
> /etc/vmware
> /home/ted/.vmware
> /home/ted/vmware
> /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/sax/profile/vmware
> /usr/bin/vmware
> /usr/lib/vmware
> /usr/share/doc/packages/ethereal/README.vmware
> /usr/share/doc/susehilf/raw_pacs/en/vmware
> /usr/share/doc/vmware
> /var/lock/subsys/vmware
> 
> 
Yes, better than nothing, thanks.  However it does seem that locate is
somewhat lacking in its 'emulation' of find.

-- 
Chris Green