mlocate.db(5) [debian man page]

mlocate.db(5)							File Formats Manual						     mlocate.db(5)

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
       NUL-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 vari-
       able  assignments,  ordered  by	variable name.	Each variable assignment consists of a NUL-terminated variable name and an ordered list of
       NUL-terminated values.  The value list is terminated by one more NUL character.	The ordering used is defined by the strcmp () function.

       Currently defined variables are:

       prune_bind_mounts
	      A single entry, the value of PRUNE_BIND_MOUNTS; one of the strings 0 or 1.

       prunefs
	      The value of PRUNEFS, each entry is converted to uppercase.

       prunepaths
	      The value of PRUNEPATHS.

       The rest of the file until EOF describes directories and their contents.  Each directory starts with a header: 8 bytes for  directory  time
       (seconds)  in  big endian, 4 bytes for directory time (nanoseconds) in big endian (0 if unknown, less than 1,000,000,000), 4 bytes padding,
       and a NUL-terminated path name of the the directory.  Directory contents, a sequence of file entries sorted by name, follow.

       Directory time is the maximum of st_ctime and st_mtime of the directory.  updatedb(8) uses the original data if the directory time  in  the
       database  and  in the file system match exactly.  Directory time equal to 0 always causes rescanning of the directory: this is necessary to
       handle directories which were being updated while building the database.

       Each file entry starts with a single byte, marking its type:

       0      A non-directory file.  Followed by a NUL-terminated file (not path) name.

       1      A subdirectory.  Followed by a NUL-terminated file (not path) name.

       2      Marks the end of the current directory.

       locate(1) only reports file entries, directory names are not reported because they are reported as an entry in their parent directory.  The
       only exception is the root directory of the database, which is stored in the file header.

AUTHOR

       Miloslav Trmac <mitr@redhat.com>

SEE ALSO

       locate(1), updatedb.conf(5), updatedb(8)

mlocate 							     Jan 2007							     mlocate.db(5)

updatedb(8)						      System Manager's Manual						       updatedb(8)

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 directo-
       ries 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 data-
	      base 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 per-
	      missions 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 licence 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 other-
       wise 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)

mlocate 							     Jun 2008							       updatedb(8)