Conclusion

This chapter focused on two commands that you'll be using often: locate and grep. Though they're relatedboth assist the Linux user in finding files and information on his computerthey go about it in different ways. The locate command searches the names of files using a database of filenames to speed up its work, while the grep command looks in real time within the contents of files to pull out the search terms.

As cool as both locate and grep are, they're just the beginning when it comes to searching your file system. The next chapter is about one of the most powerful and versatile commands on a Linux system, a command that perfectly complements, and in fact can work in tandem with, locate and grep. That command? The mighty find. Turn that page and let's get going!