NAME

       /etc/updatedb.conf - a configuration file for updatedb(8)

DESCRIPTION

       /etc/updatedb.conf  is  a text file.  Blank lines are ignored.  A # character outside of a
       quoted string starts a comment extending until end of line.

       Other lines must be of the following form:
              VARIABLE = "VALUE"

       White space between tokens is ignored.  VARIABLE is an alphanumeric string which does  not
       start with a digit.  VALUE can contain any character except for ".  No escape mechanism is
       supported within VALUE and there is no way to write VALUE spanning more than one line.

       Unknown VARIABLE values are considered an error.  The defined variables are:

       PRUNEFS
              A whitespace-separated list of file system  types  (as  used  in  /etc/mtab)  which
              should  not  be  scanned  by  updatedb(8).   The file system type matching is case-
              insensitive.  By default, no file system types are skipped.

              When scanning a file system is skipped, all file systems mounted in the subtree are
              skipped too, even if their type does not match any entry in PRUNEFS.

       PRUNENAMES
              A  whitespace-separated list of directory names (without paths) which should not be
              scanned by updatedb(8).  By default, no directory names are skipped.

              Note that only directories  can  be  specified,  and  no  pattern  mechanism  (e.g.
              globbing) is used.

       PRUNEPATHS
              A  whitespace-separated  list  of  path  names  of  directories which should not be
              scanned by updatedb(8).  Each path name must be exactly in the form  in  which  the
              directory would be reported by locate(1).

              By default, no paths are skipped.

       PRUNE_BIND_MOUNTS
              One  of the strings 0, no, 1 or yes.  If PRUNE_BIND_MOUNTS is 1 or yes, bind mounts
              are not scanned by updatedb(8).  All file systems mounted in the subtree of a  bind
              mount are skipped as well, even if they are not bind mounts.  As an exception, bind
              mounts of a directory on itself are not skipped.  Note that Btrfs subvolume  mounts
              are  handled  internally in the kernel as bind mounts (see btrfs-subvolume(8)), and
              thus, may get skipped if you have also mounted  the  filesystem  root  itself.   To
              counteract this, make your root directory a Btrfs subvolume, too.

              By default, bind mounts are not skipped.

NOTES

       When  a  directory  is  matched by PRUNEFS, PRUNENAMES or PRUNEPATHS, updatedb(8) does not
       scan the contents of the directory.  The path of the directory itself is, however, entered
       in  the  created database.  For example, if /tmp is in PRUNEPATHS, locate(1) will not show
       any files stored in /tmp, but it can show the /tmp directory.  This behavior differs  from
       traditional locate implementations.

       In some updatedb(8) implementations PRUNEPATHS can be used to exclude non-directory files.
       This is not the case in this implementation.

       /etc/updatedb.conf is a shell script in  some  implementations,  which  allows  much  more
       flexibility  in defining the variables.  Equivalent functionality can be achieved by using
       the command-line options to updatedb(8).

AUTHOR

       Miloslav Trmac <mitr@redhat.com>

SEE ALSO

       locate(1), updatedb(8)