Linux – Do some file get excluded from being saved in the locate database

commandlinuxlocatemacintosh

Does the locate database not save certain files? Like are there files that excluded from the database by default?

Best Answer

Depends on the locate implementation and configuration. On my Ubuntu 16.04, the default configuration skips a few things:

$ cat /etc/updatedb.conf
PRUNE_BIND_MOUNTS="yes"
# PRUNENAMES=".git .bzr .hg .svn"
PRUNEPATHS="/tmp /var/spool /media /home/.ecryptfs /var/lib/schroot"
PRUNEFS="NFS nfs nfs4 rpc_pipefs afs binfmt_misc proc smbfs autofs iso9660 ncpfs coda devpts ftpfs devfs mfs shfs sysfs cifs lustre tmpfs usbfs udf fuse.glusterfs fuse.sshfs curlftpfs ecryptfs fusesmb devtmpfs"

This configuration skips bind mounts, the /tmp, /media, etc. directories, and various filesystems.

Related Solutions

How to enable locate and queue the database to be built

The cron job is defined in /etc/cron.daily/mlocate.

To run it immediately:

sudo updatedb

or better

sudo ionice -c3 updatedb

This is better because updatedb is set in the Idle I/O scheduling class, so that it do not disturb (from the I/O point of view) other applications. From ionice man page:

  -c class
          The scheduling class. 0 for none, 1 for real time, 2 for 
          best-effort, 3 for idle.

  ........................

  Idle   A program running with idle io priority will only get disk time
         when no other  program  has  asked  for disk io for a defined 
         grace period. The impact of idle io processes on normal system 
         activity should be zero. This scheduling class does not take a 
         priority argument. Presently, this scheduling class is permitted 
         for an ordinary user (since kernel 2.6.25).

Best Answer

Related Solutions

How to enable locate and queue the database to be built

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