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  license  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)