lfs/appendixa/findutils-desc.xml

<sect2><title>Short descriptions</title>

<para><command>bigram</command> was formerly used to produce locate
databases.</para>

<para><command>code</command> was formerly used to produce locate
databases. It is the ancestor of frcode.</para>

<para><command>find</command> searches given directory trees for files
matching the specified criteria.</para>

<para><command>frcode</command> is called by updatedb to compress the
list of file names. It uses front-compression, reducing the database size by a
factor of 4 to 5.</para>

<para><command>locate</command> searches through a database of file names,
and reports the names that contain a given string or match a given pattern.</para>

<para><command>updatedb</command> updates the locate database. It scans
the entire filesystem (including other filesystems that are currently mounted,
unless told not to) and puts every file name it finds in the database.</para>

<para><command>xargs</command> can be used to apply a given command to
a list of files.</para>

</sect2>