find: Invoking updatedb
1
1 8.3 Invoking 'updatedb'
1 =======================
1
1 updatedb [OPTION...]
1
1 'updatedb' creates and updates the database of file names used by
1 'locate'. 'updatedb' generates a list of files similar to the output of
1 'find' and then uses utilities for optimizing the database for
1 performance. 'updatedb' is often run periodically as a 'cron' job and
1 configured with environment variables or command options. Typically,
1 operating systems have a shell script that "exports" configurations for
1 variable definitions and uses another shell script that "sources" the
1 configuration file into the environment and then executes 'updatedb' in
1 the environment.
1
1 '--findoptions='OPTION...''
1 Global options to pass on to 'find'. The environment variable
1 'FINDOPTIONS' also sets this value. Default is none.
1
1 '--localpaths='PATH...''
1 Non-network directories to put in the database. Default is '/'.
1
1 '--netpaths='PATH...''
1 Network (NFS, AFS, RFS, etc.) directories to put in the database.
1 The environment variable 'NETPATHS' also sets this value. Default
1 is none.
1
1 '--prunepaths='PATH...''
1 Directories to omit from the database, which would otherwise be
1 included. The environment variable 'PRUNEPATHS' also sets this
1 value. Default is '/tmp /usr/tmp /var/tmp /afs'. The paths are
1 used as regular expressions (with 'find ... -regex', so you need to
1 specify these paths in the same way that 'find' will encounter
1 them. This means for example that the paths must not include
1 trailing slashes.
1
1 '--prunefs='PATH...''
1 Filesystems to omit from the database, which would otherwise be
1 included. Note that files are pruned when a filesystem is reached;
1 Any filesystem mounted under an undesired filesystem will be
1 ignored. The environment variable 'PRUNEFS' also sets this value.
1 Default is 'nfs NFS proc'.
1
1 '--output=DBFILE'
1 The database file to build.
1
1 '--localuser=USER'
1 The user to search the non-network directories as, using 'su'.
1 Default is to search the non-network directories as the current
1 user. You can also use the environment variable 'LOCALUSER' to set
1 this user.
1
1 '--netuser=USER'
1 The user to search network directories as, using 'su'. Default
1 'user' is 'daemon'. You can also use the environment variable
1 'NETUSER' to set this user.
1
1 '--old-format'
1 Generate a 'locate' database in the old format, for compatibility
1 with versions of 'locate' other than GNU 'locate'. Using this
1 option means that 'locate' will not be able to properly handle
1 non-ASCII characters in file names (that is, file names containing
1 characters which have the eighth bit set, such as many of the
11 characters from the ISO-8859-1 character set). ⇒Database
Formats, for a detailed description of the supported database
1 formats.
1
1 '--dbformat=FORMAT'
1 Generate the locate database in format 'FORMAT'. Supported
1 database formats include 'LOCATE02' (which is the default), 'old'
1 and 'slocate'. The 'old' format exists for compatibility with
1 implementations of 'locate' on other Unix systems. The 'slocate'
11 format exists for compatibility with 'slocate'. ⇒Database
Formats, for a detailed description of each format.
1
1 '--help'
1 Print a summary of the command line usage and exit.
1 '--version'
1 Print the version number of 'updatedb' and exit.
1