updatedb(8)updatedb(8)NAME
udpatedb - update a database for mlocate
SYNOPSISupdatedb [OPTION]...
DESCRIPTIONupdatedb creates or updates a database used by locate(1). If the data‐
base already exists, its data is reused to avoid rereading directories
that have not changed.
updatedb is usually run daily by cron(8) to update the default data‐
base.
EXIT STATUSupdatedb returns with exit status 0 on success, 1 on error.
OPTIONS
The PRUNEFS and PRUNEPATHS variables, which are modified by some of the
options, are documented in detail in updatedb.conf(5).
-f, --add-prunefs FS
Add entries in white-space-separated list FS to PRUNEFS.
-e, --add-prunepaths PATHS
Add entries in white-space-separated list PATHS to PRUNEPATHS.
-U, --database-root PATH
Store only results of scanning the file system subtree rooted
at PATH to the generated database. The whole file system is
scanned by default.
PATH must be an absolute path name, but it may contain symbolic
links; locate(1) will output the entries using the exact spell‐
ing of PATH.
-h, --help
Write a summary of the available options to standard output and
exit sucessfully.
-o, --output FILE
Write the database to FILE instead of using the default data‐
base.
--prunefs IFS
Set PRUNEFS to IFS, overriding the config file.
--prunepaths IPATHS
Set PRUNEPATHS to IPATHS, overriding the config file.
-l, --require-visibility IFLAG
Set the “require file visibility before reporting it” flag in
the generated database to FLAG.
If FLAG is 0 or no, locate(1) outputs the database entries even
if the user running locate(1) could not have read the directory
necessary to find out the file described by the database entry.
If FLAG is 1 or yes (the default), locate(1) checks the permis‐
sions of parent directories of each entry before reporting it to
the invoking user. To make the file existence truly hidden from
other users, the database group is set to slocate and the data‐
base permissions prohibit reading the database by users using
other means than locate(1), which is sgid slocate.
-v, --verbose
Output path names of files to standard output, as soon as they
are found.
-V, --version
Write information about the version and licence of locate on
standard output and exit sucessfully.
FILES
/etc/updatedb.conf
A configuration file. See updatedb.conf(5).
/var/lib/mlocate/mlocate.db
The database updated by default.
SECURITY
Databases built with --require-visibility no allow users to find names
of files and directories of other users, which they would not otherwise
be able to do.
NOTES
The accompanying locate(1) utility was designed to be compatible to
slocate and attempts to be compatible to GNU locate where possible.
This is not the case for updatedb.
AUTHOR
Miloslav Trmac <mitr@redhat.com>
SEE ALSOlocate(1), mlocate.db(5), updatedb.conf(5)mlocate Jul 2005 updatedb(8)
