a database of all existing files

mlocate.db(5): mlocate database - Linux man page  https://linux.die.net/man/5/mlocate.db

Name

mlocate.db - a mlocate database

Description

A mlocate database starts with a file header: 8 bytes for a magic number ("mlocate" like a C literal), 4 bytes for the configuration block size in big endian, 1 byte for file format version (0), 1 byte for the 'require visibility' flag (0 or 1), 2 bytes padding, and a SMNUL-terminated path name of the root of the database.

The header is followed by a configuration block, included to ensure databases are not reused if some configuration changes could affect their contents. The size of the configuration block in bytes is stored in the file header. The configuration block is a sequence of variable assignments, ordered by variable name. Each variable assignment consists of a SMNUL-terminated variable name and an ordered list of SMNUL-terminated values. The value list is terminated by one more NULcharacter. The ordering used is defined by the strcmp () function.

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1.143.  mlocate  https://www.centos.org/docs/5/html/5.4/technical-notes/mlocate.html

1.143.  mlocate

1.143.1.  RHBA-2009:1251: bug fix update

An updated mlocate package that disables scanning GFS file systems by default is now available.

mlocate is a locate/updatedb implementation. It keeps a database of all existing files and allows you to lookup files by name.

The updatedb program is configured by the mlocate package to run daily. In its default configuration, updatedb scans included GFS and GFS2 file systems. Running updatedb concurrently on multiple nodes leads to lock contention and large changes in cache usage. This substantially reduces the effective performance of the file system. This update excludes GFS volumes from the updatedb scan by default. As a consequence, locate(1) will not report files located on GFS volumes. (BZ#221547)

Users are advised to upgrade to this updated mlocate package.    

 

 

locate(1): find files by name - Linux man page  https://linux.die.net/man/1/locate

 

Name

locate - find files by name

Synopsis

locate [OPTION]... PATTERN...

Description

locate reads one or more databases prepared by updatedb(8) and writes file names matching at least one of the PATTERNs to standard output, one per line.

If --regex is not specified, PATTERNs can contain globbing characters. If any PATTERN contains no globbing characters, locate behaves as if the pattern were *PATTERN*.

By default, locate does not check whether files found in database still exist. locate can never report files created after the most recent update of the relevant database. 

 

updatedb(8): update database for mlocate - Linux man page  https://linux.die.net/man/8/updatedb

 

 

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