update-db cron job: solving a long-standing issue

[Scott Kitterman]

On Sat, 15 Sep 2007 17:53:11 +0200 Soren Hansen <soren at ubuntu.com> wrote:
>On Sat, Sep 15, 2007 at 04:54:57PM +0200, Milan wrote:
>> We can also think (and this is my opinion ;-) ) that the locate
>> command is only used by advanced users that now how to install slocate
>> in two minutes, and thus that we don't need to install it by default.
>
>I agree with this. Heck, I consider myself a pretty advanced user, and
>the number of times I've used locate in my life can be counted on one
>hand (with enough fingers to spare to pick my nose and do a bit of
>typing). I realise the benifits of it, but I've just never gotten used
>to it, and it's really not very easily discoverable. If one were to find
>mention of it in a magazine or on IRC or whatever, it /is/ only a quick
>apt-get away. IMO, nuke it. IME the utility is never really used, and
>the daily(?) updatedb run is annoying and confusing to users who haven't
>asked for it.

I use locate regularly on desktops and servers.  If there are locate 
variants that update synchronously rather than once a day, I say looking 
into that is the best answer.  It would both eliminate the daily cron job 
system slowdown and the primary limitation of locate (that it doesn't know 
about files added since the cron job has run).

For experienced administrators I think the absence of locate would be quite 
suprising.

Scott K