We'll explain how to use the locate command on your Mac, which allows you to quickly search for files!

My name is Ito and I am an infrastructure engineer who uses both Mac and Windows

When it comes to file searching on a Mac,Spotlightis the go-to feature, right? But Spotlight alone can't find configuration files hidden deep within the file hierarchy...

That's where the "locate" command comes in handy. It creates an index database of files, allowing you to search for files at high speed.
While it requires creating and updating the file index database, it's considerably faster than the find command.
Incidentally, the find command searches for and displays files in real time, so it's not quite as fast.

So, I thought I'd use the locate command to find the file! But it turns out the locate command isn't readily available on Macs...
This time, I'll explain how to use the locate command on a Mac.

Locate on Mac

I got scolded like this.

Well, I figured it was because I hadn't run the updatedb command, but then it said the updatedb command didn't exist...

Now, let's read again what is written in the locate command

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.

Simply translated

Caution! The locate database does not exist.
To create the database, execute the following command.

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

So that's it. It wasn't the updatedb command.
Therefore, let's try executing the command as instructed.

It ended in an instant and I was worried, so I ran it again

It looks like it's creating a database behind the scenes

It depends on the capacity of your Mac, so it's hard to say for sure, but try using the locate command again after about 5 minutes

The locate command returned results.
It seems there's no rsyncd.conf file... I'll write another article about this later.

Now you can find library files and other files that even Spotlight can't find!

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