Although I love locate too, I don't see it as being very helpful to the OP as it only searches an index of file names, not the contents of the files.

Keeping a searchable index of file contents isn't trivial (searching it is even less so) and the index itself could easily grow huge. Depending on how often files are updated, keeping the index from growing stale may be an issue, especially if searches must be able to find new data as soon as it is available.

Recursing and searching file contents might really be best in his case. Getting a port of grep, as you suggested might well help though.

-sauoq
"My two cents aren't worth a dime.";