Manage Results Received When Searching a Database of Filenames
-nIf you use locate very much, eventually you're going to run into something like this: $ locate pdf /etc/cups/pdftops.conf /etc/xpdf /etc/xpdf/xpdfrc-latin2 On this computer, we get 2,373 results. Far too many! Better to use this construction instead: $ locate pdf| less Pipe the output of your locate search to the pager less (which was covered in "View Text Files a Screen at a Time," in Chapter 5, "Viewing Files"), and you get your 2,373 results one manageable screen at a time. If you just want to see the first x results, where x is an integer of your choice, use the -n option, followed by the number of results you want to see. $ locate -n 3 pdf /etc/cups/pdftops.conf /etc/xpdf /etc/xpdf/xpdfrc-latin2 This is far more manageable, and might be all you need. Don't let locate just spew a flood of results at you; instead, take control of the locate command's output and use it to your favor. |
