NAME
updatedb - update a database for mlocate
SYNOPSIS
updatedb [OPTION]...
DESCRIPTION
updatedb creates or updates a database used by locate(1). If the
database 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
database.
EXIT STATUS
updatedb returns with exit status 0 on success, 1 on error.
OPTIONS
The PRUNE_BIND_MOUNTS, PRUNEFS, PRUNENAMES 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.
-n, --add-prunenames NAMES
Add entries in white-space-separated list NAMES to PRUNENAMES.
-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.
locate(1) outputs entries as absolute path names which don’t
contain symbolic links, regardless of the form of PATH.
--debug-pruning
Write debugging information about pruning decisions to standard
error output.
-h, --help
Write a summary of the available options to standard output and
exit successfully.
-o, --output FILE
Write the database to FILE instead of using the default
database.
--prune-bind-mounts FLAG
Set PRUNE_BIND_MOUNTS to FLAG, overriding the configuration
file.
--prunefs FS
Set PRUNEFS to FS, overriding the configuration file.
--prunenames NAMES
Set PRUNENAMES to NAMES, overriding the configuration file.
--prunepaths PATHS
Set PRUNEPATHS to PATHS, overriding the configuration file.
-l, --require-visibility FLAG
Set the “require file visibility before reporting it” flag in
the generated database to FLAG.
If FLAG is 0 or no, or if the database file is readable by
"others" or it is not owned by mlocate, 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
permissions 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 mlocate
and the database permissions prohibit reading the database by
users using other means than locate(1), which is set-gid
mlocate.
Note that the visibility flag is checked only if the database is
owned by mlocate and it is not readable by "others".
-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 successfully.
EXAMPLES
To create a private mlocate database as an user other than root, run
updatedb -l 0 -o db_file -U source_directory
Note that all users that can read db_file can get the complete list of
files in the subtree of source_directory.
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 ALSO
locate(1), mlocate.db(5), updatedb.conf(5)