Locate

The locate command will return all files and directories that contain the search string in its name. It is basically equivalent to using find / -name *expression* Except that it is much faster. It does this by querying the locate database which is updated periodically by the system (usually as a cron job).

Example: $ locate passwd /etc/init.d/rpasswdd /etc/pam.d/passwd /etc/pam.d/rpasswd /etc/passwd /etc/passwd.old /etc/samba/smbpasswd The locate database can be defined by changing the value of the LOCATE_PATH environment variable. The database is typically updated daily. If you wish to force an update use the updatedb or "locate -u" command.

You can use regular expressions with locate through the -r flag: locate -r "core\.[0-9]" returns: /usr/share/man/man4/pcmcia_core.4.gz /usr/share/man/man2/mincore.2.gz (It will also find core.[pid] files, which is handy.)