When should we enable the `locate` command on a Mac

bashcommand lineunix

The locate command in Bash is available besides find to look for files, but it requires building a database. On a Mac, how useful is this and in what situation(s) should we enable it?

$ locate 'node_modules'

WARNING: The locate database (/var/db/locate.database) does not exist.
To create the database, run the following command:

  sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.locate.plist

Please be aware that the database can take some time to generate; once
the database has been created, this message will no longer appear.

Best Answer

Once created, according to the man page for locate, the database is updated, automatically, every day or week. I suppose it's one of the daily/weekly scripts that run automatically and that can be forced to run by the app OnyX. As to the difference between find and locate; since locate is said to be a "find filenames quickly" command, I suppose find doesn't use the database. So I'd create the database at your earliest convenience and then it'll get updated automatically in the background.

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