locate

Locate is a command line tool that provides a fast way to find files and directories within a Unix or Linux system. It is usually pre-installed in most distributions. The tool uses a prebuilt database called locate database, which is updated periodically by the system's cron job. This prebuilt database allows locate to quickly search for files based on their names or partial names. Locate can also use regular expressions for more advanced searching. It is case-insensitive by default but can be made case-sensitive if needed. The locate command is efficient and significantly faster than using the find command for large file systems.