1 | <sect2>
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2 | <title>Contents</title>
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3 |
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4 | <para>
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5 | The Findutils package contains the find, locate, updatedb, xargs,
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6 | frcode, code and bigram programs.
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7 | </para>
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8 |
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9 | </sect2>
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10 |
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11 | <sect2><title>Description</title>
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12 |
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13 | <sect3><title>Find</title>
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14 |
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15 | <para>
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16 | The find program searches for files in a directory hierarchy which match
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17 | a certain criteria. If no criteria is given, it lists all files in the
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18 | current directory and it's subdirectories.
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19 | </para>
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20 |
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21 | </sect3>
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22 |
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23 | <sect3><title>Locate</title>
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24 |
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25 | <para>
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26 | Locate scans a database which contain all files and directories on a
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27 | filesystem. This program lists the files and directories in this
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28 | database matching a certain criteria. If a user is looking for a file this
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29 | program will scan the database and tell him exactly where the files he
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30 | requested are located. This only makes sense if the locate database is
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31 | fairly up-to-date else it will provide out-of-date information.
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32 | </para>
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33 |
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34 | </sect3>
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35 |
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36 | <sect3><title>Updatedb</title>
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37 |
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38 | <para>
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39 | The updatedb program updates the locate database. It scans the entire
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40 | file system (including other file system that are currently mounted
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41 | unless it is told not to do so) and puts every directory and file it finds
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42 | into the database that's used by the locate program which retrieves this
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43 | information. It's a good practice to update this database once a day to
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44 | have it up-to-date whenever it is needed.
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45 | </para>
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46 |
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47 | </sect3>
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48 |
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49 | <sect3><title>Xargs</title>
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50 |
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51 | <para>
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52 | The xargs command applies a command to a list of files. If there is a need to
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53 | perform the same command on multiple files, a file can be created that
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54 | contains all these files (one per line) and use xargs to perform that
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55 | command on the list.
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56 | </para>
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57 |
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58 | </sect3>
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59 |
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60 | <sect3><title>frcode</title>
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61 |
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62 | <para>
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63 | updatedb runs a program called frcode to compress the list of file names
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64 | using front-compression, which reduces the database size by a factor of
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65 | 4 to 5.
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66 | </para>
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67 |
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68 | </sect3>
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69 |
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70 | <sect3><title>code</title>
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71 |
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72 | <para>
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73 | code is the ancestor of frcode. It was used in older-style locate databases.
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74 | </para>
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75 |
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76 | </sect3>
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77 |
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78 | <sect3><title>bigram</title>
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79 |
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80 | <para>
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81 | bigram is used together with code to produce older-style locate databases. To
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82 | learn more about these last three programs, read the locatedb.5 manual page.
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83 | </para>
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84 |
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85 | </sect3>
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86 |
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87 | </sect2>
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88 |
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