8.3 Invoking updatedb

updatedb [option…]

updatedb creates and updates the database of file names used by locate. updatedb generates a list of files similar to the output of find and then uses utilities for optimizing the database for performance. updatedb is often run periodically as a cron job and configured with environment variables or command options. Typically, operating systems have a shell script that “exports” configurations for variable definitions and uses another shell script that “sources” the configuration file into the environment and then executes updatedb in the environment.

--findoptions='OPTION…'

Global options to pass on to find. The environment variable FINDOPTIONS also sets this value. Default is none.

--localpaths='path…'

Non-network directories to put in the database. Default is /.

--netpaths='path…'

Network (NFS, AFS, RFS, etc.) directories to put in the database. The environment variable NETPATHS also sets this value. Default is none.

--prunepaths='path…'

Directories to omit from the database, which would otherwise be included. The environment variable PRUNEPATHS also sets this value. Default is /tmp /usr/tmp /var/tmp /afs. The paths are used as regular expressions (with find ... -regex, so you need to specify these paths in the same way that find will encounter them. This means for example that the paths must not include trailing slashes.

--prunefs='path…'

Filesystems to omit from the database, which would otherwise be included. Note that files are pruned when a filesystem is reached; Any filesystem mounted under an undesired filesystem will be ignored. The environment variable PRUNEFS also sets this value. Default is nfs NFS proc.

--output=dbfile

The database file to build. The default is system-dependent, but when this document was formatted it was /usr/local/var/locatedb.

--localuser=user

The user to search the non-network directories as, using su. Default is to search the non-network directories as the current user. You can also use the environment variable LOCALUSER to set this user.

--netuser=user

The user to search network directories as, using su. Default user is daemon. You can also use the environment variable NETUSER to set this user.

--dbformat=FORMAT

Generate the locate database in format FORMAT. Supported database formats include LOCATE02 (which is the default) and slocate. The slocate format exists for compatibility with slocate. See Database Formats, for a detailed description of each format.

--help

Print a summary of the command line usage and exit.

--version

Print the version number of updatedb and exit.