Man page 8 : updatedb

updatedb - update a database for mlocate

updatedb [OPTION]...

updatedb creates or updates a database used by

R 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

R cron (8) to update the default database.

updatedb returns with exit status 0 on success, 1 on error.

The PRUNE_BIND_MOUNTS, PRUNEFS,

PRUNENAMES and

PRUNEPATHS variables, which are modified by some of the options, are documented in detail in

R updatedb.conf (5).

• -f, \fB--add-prunefs\fB FS
      Add entries in white-space-separated list FS to PRUNEFS.
• -n, \fB--add-prunenames\fB NAMES
      Add entries in white-space-separated list NAMES to PRUNENAMES.
• -e, \fB--add-prunepaths\fB 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.

R 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 FILEinstead 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 FLAGis

0 or no, or if the database file is readable by "others" or it is not owned by mlocate,

R locate (1) outputs the database entries even if the user running

R locate (1) could not have read the directory necessary to find out the file described by the database entry. If FLAGis

1 or

yes (the default),

R 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

R 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.

To create a private mlocate database as an user other than root, run

updatedb -l 0 -o db_file

-U source_directoryNote that all users that can read db_filecan get the complete list of files in the subtree of source_directory.

• /etc/updatedb.conf
      A configuration file. See

R updatedb.conf (5).

• /var/lib/mlocate/mlocate.db
      The database updated by default.

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.

The accompanying

R 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.

Miloslav Trmac <>

R locate (1),

R mlocate.db (5),

R updatedb.conf (5)