2mo ago

is the command locate too old for debian 13 xfce?

[SOLVED] I run sudo updatedb

locate is a command I've used in the past, but now, fresh installed with sudo apt get locate it doesn return anything.

locate --version returns locate (GNU findutils) 4.10.0, from 2024

or, have I forgotten something?

10 comments

locate uses an index you need to update using updatedb before it is able to find anything.
updatedb may run periodically because of a cron job, but the index is probably missing right after installing it manually.
run these two commands:
sudo apt install mlocate
sudo updatedb
- sudo updatedb
  thanks!
Several distributions made an effort to replace locate with alternative and updated versions of it. For usage the command name is still locate, but the package name should be different, in example mlocate or plocate and there are other alternatives too. The main difference between the old and new versions is they are faster.
You can search the package database to determine which package(s) provide a file with dpkg --search $file
IIRC u need mlocate or plocate...
Is the package named findutils?
Just tried this on a recent Trixie amd64 install. locate isn't installed by default, but there is a locate/stable 4.10.0-3 package and it installs just fine for me.

sudo apt update sudo apt install locate
I'm pretty sure it wasn't installed by default in the previous version either, and maybe even the one before that. It's a useful utility, after you locate it.
Btw, there's also
IFS=:; find $PATH -executable -iname "$1" -print
Speed advantages of a indexed DB don't matter much anymore with nowadays hardware.

10 comments