what is the difference between locate and find ?

[Andy Green]

M E Fieu wrote:

> Hi.. I tried to look for a file in a linux box using both locate and find , when using find I can
> find my file but locate cannot.  However I found sometime locate will work when I look for other
> file.  what is the difference between locate and find ?

locate uses a snapshot of your filesystem at the time its database was
created, usually nightly on a cronjob.  Find is going out and looking at
the filesystem right at the time that you run it.

If...

> [root at wa html]# locate abc.pl
> [root at wa html]# find / -name abc.pl -print
> find: /proc/21829/fd: No such file or directory
> /usr/local/abc/abc.pl
> [root at wa html]# 

...abc.pl was created since the last time the slocate database was
created, locate will fail to find it until it has a chance to discover
it next time slocate runs.

-Andy
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