Easy method with locate command
The easiest way is to use locate and find the file you want.
Example:
root@bt:/# locate mp.sh
/home/passwd/mp.sh
/usr/bin/mp.sh
There are times when you cannot search file with locate program, this is because the path database of the file is not updated. You can invoke the update using updatedb command.
Another example with simple regexp:
locate -r gcc$
Result:
/etc/bash_completion.d/gcc
/root/.wine/drive_c/MinGW/lib/gcc
/root/.wine/drive_c/MinGW/libexec/gcc
/usr/bin/c89-gcc
/usr/bin/c99-gcc
/usr/bin/gcc
/usr/bin/winegcc
/usr/bin/x86_64-linux-gnu-gcc
/usr/lib/gcc
/usr/lib32/gcc
/usr/share/doc/gcc
/usr/share/doc/gcc-4.4-base/gcc
/usr/share/virtualbox/src/vboxhost/vboxdrv/math/gcc
/usr/share/virtualbox/src/vboxhost/vboxnetadp/math/gcc
/usr/share/virtualbox/src/vboxhost/vboxnetflt/math/gcc
/usr/share/virtualbox/src/vboxhost/vboxpci/math/gcc
/var/lib/dkms/vboxhost/4.1.0/build/vboxdrv/math/gcc
/var/lib/dkms/vboxhost/4.1.0/build/vboxnetadp/math/gcc
/var/lib/dkms/vboxhost/4.1.0/build/vboxnetflt/math/gcc
/var/lib/dkms/vboxhost/4.1.0/build/vboxpci/math/gcc
This means find the file that ends with gcc, you can further trim the search using grep:
locate -r gcc$ | grep bin
Another example using ignore case option:
Linux commands are case sensitive, sometime you are not sure about the case but you know the name of the file, you can do this.
locate -i reaver | grep bin
result:
/usr/bin/reaver
/usr/local/bin/reaver
Notice the difference
root@bt:/# locate -r ‘/bin/gcc$’
/usr/bin/gcc
This search is only interested the file that ends at gcc.
root@bt:/# locate -r ‘/bin/gcc’
/root/.wine/drive_c/MinGW/bin/gcc.exe
/root/.wine/drive_c/MinGW/bin/gccbug
/usr/bin/gcc
/usr/bin/gcc-4.4
/usr/bin/gccmakedep
This search matches any file that contains gcc.
cyruslab 