How to Install locate command in Linux (RedHat/CentOS 7/8) Using 5 Easy Steps

Table of Contents

Synopsis

locate [OPTION]... PATTERN...

How to Install locate command in Linux (RedHat/CentOS 7/8) Using 5 Easy Steps 1

Install locate command in Linux

Also Read: 10 Best Examples of Locate Command in Linux (RedHat/CentOS 7/8)

Step 1: Prerequisites

a)You need to have a running RedHat/CentOS 7/8 System.

b)You should have yum command installed in your System.

c)You should have sudo access to run all privileged commands.

NOTE:

Please note that here I am using root user to run all the below commands.You can use any user with sudo access
to run all these commands. For more information Please check Step by Step: How to Add User to Sudoers to provide sudo access to User.

Step 2: Update Your System

Before going through the steps to install locate command in Linux you need to first update your System with latest version using yum update -y command as shown below. As you can see from below output, in this case system is already updated with the latest version so it is not detecting any more update.

[root@localhost ~]# yum update -y
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
* base: mirrors.piconets.webwerks.in
* epel: mirrors.piconets.webwerks.in
* extras: mirrors.piconets.webwerks.in
* updates: mirrors.piconets.webwerks.in
No packages marked for update

Step 3: Install mlocate package

Now that when we know system is already updated with latest version it is time to install locate command using yum install -y mlocate command as shown below.

[root@localhost ~]# yum install -y mlocate
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
* base: mirrors.piconets.webwerks.in
* epel: mirrors.piconets.webwerks.in
* extras: mirrors.piconets.webwerks.in
* updates: mirrors.piconets.webwerks.in
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package mlocate.x86_64 0:0.26-8.el7 will be installed
--> Finished Dependency Resolution

Dependencies Resolved

========================================================================================================================================================================
Package Arch Version Repository Size
========================================================================================================================================================================
Installing:
mlocate x86_64 0.26-8.el7 base 113 k

Transaction Summary
========================================================================================================================================================================
Install 1 Package

Total download size: 113 k
Installed size: 379 k
Downloading packages:
mlocate-0.26-8.el7.x86_64.rpm | 113 kB 00:00:00
Running transaction check
Running transaction test
Transaction test succeeded
Running transaction
Installing : mlocate-0.26-8.el7.x86_64 1/1
Verifying : mlocate-0.26-8.el7.x86_64 1/1

Installed:
mlocate.x86_64 0:0.26-8.el7

Complete!

Step 4: Update Your DB

After successful installation of locate command in Linux you need to update the DB by running updatedb command as shown below. This command will update the mlocate database.

[root@localhost ~]# updatedb

NOTE:

Please note that if you run locate command immediately after installing mlocate package then you will get the error "locate: can not stat () `/var/lib/mlocate/mlocate.db': No such file or directory".

Step 5: Test locate command

Now that mlocate DB is updated you can quickly test the functionality of locate command by running locate file.txt command as shown below. This command will search for a file.txt anywhere available in the System with the current logged in user access.

[root@localhost ~]# locate file.txt
/home/centos/file.txt
/root/file.txt

NOTE:

Please make sure to check the access of the user before searching a file as current logged in user might not have permission to search in all the files and directories. You will not see "Permission Denied" error while running locate command from non-privileged user id like you get in find command search. It will simply not look into those directories where it is not allowed.

You can check other options that can be used with locate command using --help as shown below.

[root@localhost ~]# locate --help
Usage: locate [OPTION]... [PATTERN]...
Search for entries in a mlocate database.

-A, --all only print entries that match all patterns
-b, --basename match only the base name of path names
-c, --count only print number of found entries
-d, --database DBPATH use DBPATH instead of default database (which is
/var/lib/mlocate/mlocate.db) install locate
-e, --existing only print entries for currently existing files
-L, --follow follow trailing symbolic links when checking file
existence (default) install locate
-h, --help print this help
-i, --ignore-case ignore case distinctions when matching patterns
-l, --limit, -n LIMIT limit output (or counting) to LIMIT entries
-m, --mmap ignored, for backward compatibility
-P, --nofollow, -H don't follow trailing symbolic links when checking file
existence install locate