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Existence Checks (-e)

Because locate queries a database that can be up to 24 hours old, results can include:

  • Ghost files: files that have been deleted since the last updatedb
  • Missing new files: files created after the last updatedb

The -e flag (--existing) tells locate to verify each result against the live filesystem before printing it. Only files that actually exist right now are shown.

Basic Usage​

# Without -e: may include deleted files
locate nginx.conf

# With -e: guaranteed to exist right now
locate -e nginx.conf

Performance Note​

-e makes locate slower because it performs a stat() system call for every candidate result. For large result sets (thousands of paths), this adds noticeable latency. Use -e only when accuracy matters.

Scripting with -e​

Use -e in scripts that will act on the results, to avoid operating on deleted paths:

#!/bin/bash
# Find all php.ini files and check their memory settings
locate -e "php.ini" | while read -r conf; do
    echo "=== $conf ==="
    grep "memory_limit" "$conf"
done

Checking File Count​

# How many nginx.conf files exist right now?
locate -e -c nginx.conf

Combining -e with Other Filters​

# Existing .log files from a quick locate, piped to find for size info
locate -e "*.log" | xargs ls -lh 2>/dev/null | sort -k5 -hr | head -20