[Techtalk] updatedb hard drive thrashing

Carla Schroder carla at bratgrrl.com
Sun Jun 22 13:48:10 EST 2003


On Sunday 22 June 2003 12:55 pm, Mary wrote:
> On Sun, Jun 22, 2003, Deanna Dunker wrote:
> > I've noticed that sometimes it won't allow me to use the Find utility
> > until I've ran updatedb.  I'll go to find a file, and a message will
> > pop up saying something along the lines about how the search wont be
> > completed until I've run updatedb as root.  This has happened to me
> > several times in RH9, which I've been running for a few weeks now.
> > I've never had that problem in RH8.
> >
> > Is there a way around it?  I've just been trying to find files through
> > the GUI (*cringes*, yes I'm a gui-gal).  Would I be able to search
> > without having to wait to updatedb another way?  Also, would this
> > affect Ed's searching capabilities if he uninstalled the program?
>
> I assume what's happening is that your GUI is calling locate, or is
> talking directly to the locate database, and if it is too out of date or
> something, then it refuses to run. I don't know anything about the GUI
> (I don't even know if Red Hat wrote it themselves, or if you're using a
> GNOME or KDE program for it - one of the difficulties with talking about
> GUI programs on Linux is that it's not always easy to figure out if the
> two people are talking about the same program... but in any case, it's
> sensible that it would use locate - a direct search of the harddrive is
> just the same as what updatedb does!)
>
> Yes, ed's ability to find files will be affected if he stops updatedb
> running - he won't be able to run "locate" or Red Hat's GUI Find utility
> - or if he does, it won't find new files because the locate database
> won't be up to date.
>
> -Mary

"Find" has a lot of options, and offers precision and flexibility that 
"locate" doesn't. Linking "find" to "locate" doesn't seem like a good idea to 
me. But that does sound like what is happening.

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Carla Schroder
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