slocate in the default desktop install

[Colin Watson]

On Tue, Feb 12, 2008 at 05:18:42PM +0000, Sam Tygier wrote:
> Scott James Remnant wrote:
> > Tracker only indexes the home directory of the user who does the search,
> > slocate indexes the entire disk that everybody can read.
> 
> why would a typical desktop user ever need to 'locate' a file that is
> not in their home folder?

As I said in another post, it is a mistake to try to divide the world
into gurus and typical desktop users. Many people (including influential
reviewers and third-party developers) fall somewhere between those two
stools, and do not decide to install the server edition instead simply
because they don't fall into a straitjacketed conception of a typical
desktop user.

For example, we expose configuration files in /etc for users to edit,
and go to some effort to support smooth upgrades of these files even in
the presence of user changes, even though "typical desktop users" will
probably never change them. However, desktop users who go a little bit
beyond the typical may well do so.

> for advanced who know of locate, and try to use it they will be told
> how to install it. after installing slocate does it do an index
> straight away?

No; nor does mlocate. I think it's better if it's there up-front. In
fact, I think mlocate should probably be in standard so that it's in the
default server install too.

-- 
Colin Watson                                       [cjwatson at ubuntu.com]