On Thu, 2004-01-01 at 17:48, Michael Havens wrote:
> On Tuesday 16 December 2003 10:06 pm, Jeremy C. Reed said:
> 
> ~ What version of updatedb?
> ~
> ~ Try: "updatedb --version"
> ~
> Here is the version:
> 
> root@bmike1:/home/knoppix# updatedb --version
> GNU updatedb version 4.1.20
> 
> I then looked in the snaptic program list to see if I had the current version; 
> unfortuately, updatedb was not listed among the files. So the thought came 
> that perhaps it just isn't listed ; but:
> root@bmike1:/home/knoppix# apt-get install updatedb
> Reading Package Lists... Done
> Building Dependency Tree... Done
> E: Couldn't find package updatedb
> root@bmike1:/home/knoppix#
> 
> ~ > 	/usr/bin/find: error in /etc/mtab: none: No such file or directory
> ~
> ~Do you have an /etc/mtab file?
> 
> I looked and here is the mtab
> 
> /dev/hda5 / ext3 rw,errors=remount-ro 0 0
> /dev/root.old /initrd ext2 rw 0 0
> none /proc proc rw 0 0
> devpts /dev/pts devpts rw,gid=5,mode=620 0 0
> /proc/bus/usb none usbfs rw 0 0
> capifs /dev/capi capifs rw,mode=0666 0 0
> /dev/hda1 /mnt/hda1 vfat rw 0 0
> 
> You know, mtab needs to be updated with sda5 and sda6. From what I've heard it 
> is an auto-generated file that people are not supposed to edit. So how do I 
> initiate the update process?
> 
> ~ Maybe try with:
> ~
> ~ updatedb --localuser=nobody
> 
> ~bmike1@bmike1:~$ updatedb --localuser=nobody
> /usr/bin/updatedb: line 142: /var/cache/locate/locatedb.n: Permission denied
> Password:
> su: Authentication failure
> updatedb: new database would be empty
> 
> root@bmike1:/home/knoppix# updatedb --localuser=nobody
> /usr/bin/find: /lost+found: Permission denied
> /usr/bin/find: error in /etc/mtab: none: No such file or directory
> 
> ~ Or:
> ~
> ~ su nobody -c updatedb
> 
> bmike1@bmike1:~$ su nobody -c updatedb
> Password:
> su: Authentication failure
> Sorry.
> 
> root@bmike1:/home/knoppix# su nobody -c updatedb
> /usr/bin/find: /lost+found: Permission denied
> /usr/bin/find: error in /etc/mtab: none: No such file or directory
> /usr/bin/updatedb: line 142: /var/cache/locate/locatedb.n: Permission denied
> updatedb: new database would be empty
----
I've never run updatedb as any user other than root and I can't imagine
why run it as other than root but someone might have a reason.

Typically a redhat system will run a cron job nightly which will
automatically 'makewhatis' 'slocate' etc... so the only need to actually
update this is if you install or copy new files and you want to find
them, then a manual updatedb will help.

if you ignore mtab for a second - consider /etc/fstab - any item listed
in there that says things like auto/defaults will mount at startup (if
available). Things like cdrom drives are often noauto.

After startup, if you create another mount, then this mount like all of
the other filesystems mounted at startup via fstab will all be listed in
mtab. There is an option to 'not' list a mount in mtab - see man mount.

Compare /etc/fstab with /etc/mtab and that should give a clue as to
what's going on. 

You can also updatedb -f vfat to not add the vfat mounts to the slocate
database...see man updatedb - updatedb (slocate) cannot possibly work on
filesystems that aren't mounted.

Craig