[SOLVED] Does updatedb run by itself or only manually?

george-lappies · 07-10-2011, 12:19 PM

I want to use updatedb to index an external hard disk drive. I mount the drive under /media/external and removed '/media' from the PRUNEPATHS in /etc/updatedb.conf file.

This works and I can search for files when the drive is not connected using slocate. However it takes sometime to index the drive and I do not want updatedb to run on its own (if it ran while external is disconnected well...) and seeing as the box in question is on 24/7 if it should run by itself it will most certainly ruin the slocate db.

I was thinking of plugging the drive in and running updatedb again, once completed will this work

Code:

# slocate '/media/external' > ext_file_list

and then to find a file even when external is disconnected

Code:

grep file_i_want ~/ext_file_list

Or does any of the sages out there have a much better approach I should think of using?

Eagerly awaiting responses

Woodsman · 07-10-2011, 12:45 PM

The stock Slackware runs slocate through cron.daily. The stock Slackware is configured to run daily cron events at something like 4AM in the morning. Probably a good time for servers but not a great time for desktop users.

Your prune list in /etc/updatedb.conf will prevent the daily cron job from including the external drive.

You want to index a removable drive, but you want to maintain a separate index for the external drive.

slocate has a few command options to place a database in a non-default location (man slocate). The command has options to start the index search at a specific location in the file system. For example /media/external. You could use those options to override the options in /etc/updatedb.conf.

You could write a simple script that checks for the existence of the external drive and runs slocate with your preferred options. Place the script in /usr/local/sbin, which is part of root's search path ($PATH). That allows you to run the script manually. Create a sym link in cron.daily or cron.hourly to the script. That way you can connect the external drive and let slocate run automatically rather than manually.

jedi_sith_fears · 07-10-2011, 02:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Woodsman

You could write a simple script that checks for the existence of the external drive and runs slocate with your preferred options. Place the script in /usr/local/sbin, which is part of root's search path ($PATH). That allows you to run the script manually. Create a sym link in cron.daily or cron.hourly to the script. That way you can connect the external drive and let slocate run automatically rather than manually.

This is probably the best idea & I came up with the same solution sometimes back for my external spare HDD.

george-lappies · 07-11-2011, 02:49 AM

Thanks all, marking this as solved.