<s>
locate	B-Application
is	O
a	O
Unix	B-Application
utility	O
which	O
serves	O
to	O
find	B-Application
files	O
on	O
filesystems	B-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
It	O
searches	O
through	O
a	O
prebuilt	O
database	O
of	O
files	O
generated	O
by	O
the	O
updatedb	B-Application
command	B-Application
or	O
by	O
a	O
daemon	B-Operating_System
and	O
compressed	O
using	O
incremental	B-Data_Structure
encoding	I-Data_Structure
.	O
</s>
<s>
It	O
operates	O
significantly	O
faster	O
than	O
find	B-Application
,	O
but	O
requires	O
regular	O
updating	O
of	O
the	O
database	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
This	O
sacrifices	O
overall	O
efficiency	O
(	O
because	O
of	O
the	O
regular	O
interrogation	O
of	O
filesystems	B-Application
even	O
when	O
no	O
user	O
needs	O
information	O
)	O
and	O
absolute	O
accuracy	O
(	O
since	O
the	O
database	O
does	O
not	O
update	O
in	O
real	B-General_Concept
time	I-General_Concept
)	O
for	O
significant	O
speed	O
improvements	O
,	O
particularly	O
on	O
very	O
large	O
filesystems	B-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
locate	B-Application
was	O
first	O
created	O
in	O
1982	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
BSD	O
and	O
GNU	B-Application
Findutils	I-Application
versions	O
derive	O
from	O
the	O
original	O
implementation	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
locate	B-Application
command	B-Application
is	O
also	O
included	O
in	O
MacOS	B-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
mlocate	B-Application
(	O
Merging	O
Locate	B-Application
)	O
and	O
the	O
earlier	O
slocate	B-Application
(	O
Secure	O
Locate	B-Application
)	O
use	O
a	O
restricted-access	O
database	O
,	O
only	O
showing	O
filenames	O
accessible	O
to	O
the	O
user	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Like	O
mlocate	B-Application
and	O
slocate	B-Application
,	O
it	O
only	O
shows	O
files	O
if	O
find	B-Application
would	O
list	O
it	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Compared	O
to	O
mlocate	B-Application
,	O
it	O
is	O
much	O
faster	O
,	O
and	O
its	O
index	O
is	O
smaller	O
.	O
</s>
