Locate (File Indexer)

Install

sudo apt install plocate

Enable the timer for periodic file database updates

sudo systemctl enable plocate-updatedb.timer
sudo systemctl start  plocate-updatedb.timer

Configure

Edit /etc/updatedb.conf to exclude directories:

PRUNEPATHS="... /backups"

Use locate

Search your index for a filename:

locate my-cool-file

Count the files with a given extension

locate -c -r /etc/.*yml