locate a file by its full file name?

Question

When I run locate syn, it will return files with syn appearing in their file names.

How can I search for files with full name syn? Is locate --regex syn$ the correct way, while locate --regex ^syn$ isn't?

But you don't have syn at the beginning of the line, do you? Try locate --regex '/syn$'. — jimmij, Mar 17 '15 at 14:50

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 17 '15 at 14:53

The --regex option applies to the entire path, not just the file name. So, locate --regex syn$ will match all files and directories whose path, including their name, ends in syn while locate --regex syn$ will only match a file whose entire path is syn and such a file does not exist:

$ locate --regex ^etc$ ## returns nothing
$ locate --regex ^/etc$
/etc

The option you're looking for is -b:

   -b, --basename
          Match  only  the base name against the specified patterns.  This
          is the opposite of --wholename.

You could, therefore, do

locate -b --regex ^sys$

That will list all files and folders in locatedb whose name is exactly sys.

locate a file by its full file name?

1 Answers1