How do I speed up searches in files?

Question

I know that on windows you can index your files to find things faster. Is there something like this for Ubuntu because when I search for something like /usr under files it says searching and it takes really long.

Answer 1

yes

sudo updatedb

then

locate foo

see http://www.linfo.org/locate.html

You can also use find

find /usr -name foo

see http://content.hccfl.edu/pollock/unix/findcmd.htm

For a graphical tool see Software for text search in files