Mac OS X Tiger for Unix Geeks: Searching and Metadata

Overview

If a Unix Geek needs to find something, she'll probably use locate or find, depending on what she's looking for. Because locate is based on a static database that's only regenerated periodically, it would be the choice for things that don't change a lot (virtually anything in /usr). It's also much faster because it has that database to consult. And trusty old find, slow as molasses, it what the user needs when he or she needs more control over the search or when they're looking for something that locate doesn't know about, such as files that have been created recently.