updatedb

jukebox55 · 03-14-2008, 11:45 PM

should updatedb ever run on its own without the user invoking it? i ask because i just heard my HD working and did top in a terminal, and updatedb was running, and i didnt start it.

gilead · 03-14-2008, 11:48 PM

Have a look in /etc/cron.daily for a script called slocate. If it's there you can run (as root) crontab -l | grep cron.daily to see what time it runs.

You can also use ps or top to see what is running when you notice this.

Hendronicus · 03-14-2008, 11:49 PM

It's run out of /etc/cron.daily and in Slackware it's set to go at 4:30 AM. You can just reset the permissions to 644 on the /etc/cron.daily/slocate file if you don't want it to run. That's what I did; because one night I was working away when my processor spiked to 100% and I couldn't figure out why - It was updatedb.

jukebox55 · 03-15-2008, 12:19 AM

thanks guys

it gave me a bit of a start when i ran top and saw updatedb being run! i thought it was hackers lol.

i ran

Code:

crontab -l | grep cron.daily

and it gave me '40 4 * * *' etc etc. i vaguely rememeber cron from the general overview i got when i first started with linux, i havent had an occasion to use cron up to now (at least not to my knowledge).

cheers, im off to get some sleep.

Hendronicus · 03-15-2008, 12:25 AM

Same thing here, except I had been getting my Samba server beat on by a bunch of Russian hackers earlier that week and I just about lost it! I couldn't believe they had found a way in. Fortunately, they didn't.

evilDagmar · 03-15-2008, 02:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hendronicus

It's run out of /etc/cron.daily and in Slackware it's set to go at 4:30 AM. You can just reset the permissions to 644 on the /etc/cron.daily/slocate file if you don't want it to run. That's what I did; because one night I was working away when my processor spiked to 100% and I couldn't figure out why - It was updatedb.

You could always just change the cron job so that updatedb is run with a different nice level.

jschiwal · 03-15-2008, 02:10 AM

On a fresh install, it can take a while for it to run the first time. It is a good idea to just let a freshly installed workstation run at least 24 hours so it finishes indexing the filenames. The same is true for Beagle search.

While we are on the topic of time, if you use beagle search, take a gander at the attributes of searched files & directories:

Code:

getfattr --dump Documents/
# file: Documents
user.Beagle.AttrTime="20080315051430"
user.Beagle.Fingerprint="02 x65U3PZEo0OohQvwE3O9rg"
user.Beagle.MTime="20080315051430"
user.Beagle.Uid="OxEcA7zrNk6HQkKCYen72A"

getfattr --dump Documents/bash.dvi
# file: Documents/bash.dvi
user.Beagle.AttrTime="20080225054443"
user.Beagle.Fingerprint="02 x65U3PZEo0OohQvwE3O9rg"
user.Beagle.MTime="20050319124648"
user.Beagle.Uid="ZjJ+ajcxkE+Fos0rTYHWwg"

shadowsnipes · 03-15-2008, 02:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by evilDagmar

You could always just change the cron job so that updatedb is run with a different nice level.

This is a good suggestion. I just wanted this to get more notice. man nice for those that don't know what evilDagmar is talking about.

Hendronicus · 03-15-2008, 07:08 PM

I agree, I just didn't think of it at the time.

orbit · 06-29-2008, 09:42 PM

Hello,

Regarding the cron.daily slocate updatedb hogging the CPU.
I have read the minimal man file and was wondering if the following syntax would be the correct addition to make it run with a very low priority?

/etc/cron.daily/slocate:

Code:

#!/bin/sh
nice --adjustment=-20 /usr/bin/updatedb -c /etc/updatedb.conf

Thanks if someone could confirm this string.

Cheers

Orbit

T3slider · 06-30-2008, 12:17 AM

It should be the opposite orbit. -20 is very high priority, while 19 is low priority (see `man nice`). The command should be this:

Code:

#!/bin/sh
nice --adjustment=19 /usr/bin/updatedb -c /etc/updatedb.conf

orbit · 06-30-2008, 09:57 PM

Hi T3slider,

Ok (oops), I'll adjust the string in the other direction.

Thanks very much for getting back to me about this

Cheers

Orbit