Linux updatedb Command with Practical Examples

Introduction

In this lab, you will learn how to use the updatedb command in Linux to update the locate database, which is a database that stores information about the location of files on the system. This database is used by the locate command to quickly search for files on the system. You will also learn how to use the locate command to search for files on your system. The lab covers the purpose of the updatedb command, updating the locate database, and searching for files using the locate command.

Linux Commands Cheat Sheet

Skills Graph

Understand the Purpose of updatedb Command

In this step, you will learn about the purpose of the updatedb command in Linux. The updatedb command is used to update the locate database, which is a database that stores information about the location of files on the system. This database is used by the locate command to quickly search for files on the system.

The updatedb command scans the entire file system and updates the locate database with the current file locations. This is useful because the file system can change over time, and the locate database needs to be updated to reflect these changes.

Let's start by running the updatedb command:

sudo updatedb

Example output:

/usr/bin/updatedb: Scanning /
/usr/bin/updatedb: Scanning /boot
/usr/bin/updatedb: Scanning /dev
/usr/bin/updatedb: Scanning /etc
/usr/bin/updatedb: Scanning /home
/usr/bin/updatedb: Scanning /lib
/usr/bin/updatedb: Scanning /media
/usr/bin/updatedb: Scanning /mnt
/usr/bin/updatedb: Scanning /opt
/usr/bin/updatedb: Scanning /proc
/usr/bin/updatedb: Scanning /root
/usr/bin/updatedb: Scanning /run
/usr/bin/updatedb: Scanning /sbin
/usr/bin/updatedb: Scanning /snap
/usr/bin/updatedb: Scanning /srv
/usr/bin/updatedb: Scanning /sys
/usr/bin/updatedb: Scanning /tmp
/usr/bin/updatedb: Scanning /usr
/usr/bin/updatedb: Scanning /var
/usr/bin/updatedb: Merging directories
/usr/bin/updatedb: Writing to database

The updatedb command scans the entire file system and updates the locate database with the current file locations. This process can take some time, depending on the size of your file system.

Now that you've updated the locate database, you can use the locate command to quickly search for files on your system.

Update the Locate Database with updatedb Command

In this step, you will learn how to update the locate database using the updatedb command.

The updatedb command scans the entire file system and updates the locate database with the current file locations. This is useful because the file system can change over time, and the locate database needs to be updated to reflect these changes.

Let's start by running the updatedb command again:

sudo updatedb

Example output:

/usr/bin/updatedb: Scanning /
/usr/bin/updatedb: Scanning /boot
/usr/bin/updatedb: Scanning /dev
/usr/bin/updatedb: Scanning /etc
/usr/bin/updatedb: Scanning /home
/usr/bin/updatedb: Scanning /lib
/usr/bin/updatedb: Scanning /media
/usr/bin/updatedb: Scanning /mnt
/usr/bin/updatedb: Scanning /opt
/usr/bin/updatedb: Scanning /proc
/usr/bin/updatedb: Scanning /root
/usr/bin/updatedb: Scanning /run
/usr/bin/updatedb: Scanning /sbin
/usr/bin/updatedb: Scanning /snap
/usr/bin/updatedb: Scanning /srv
/usr/bin/updatedb: Scanning /sys
/usr/bin/updatedb: Scanning /tmp
/usr/bin/updatedb: Scanning /usr
/usr/bin/updatedb: Scanning /var
/usr/bin/updatedb: Merging directories
/usr/bin/updatedb: Writing to database

The updatedb command scans the entire file system and updates the locate database with the current file locations. This process can take some time, depending on the size of your file system.

Now that you've updated the locate database, you can use the locate command to quickly search for files on your system.

Search for Files Using the locate Command

In this step, you will learn how to use the locate command to search for files on your system.

The locate command uses the locate database, which was updated in the previous step, to quickly search for files. The locate command is much faster than using the find command, as it doesn't have to scan the entire file system.

Let's start by using the locate command to search for a file:

locate bash

Example output:

/bin/bash
/etc/bash.bashrc
/etc/skel/.bashrc
/usr/bin/bashbug
/usr/bin/pkexec
/usr/include/bash
/usr/include/bashline.h
/usr/lib/bash
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libbash.so.5
/usr/share/bash-completion
/usr/share/bash-completion/bash_completion
/usr/share/doc/bash
/usr/share/doc/bash/changelog.Debian.gz
/usr/share/doc/bash/copyright
/usr/share/man/man1/bash.1.gz

As you can see, the locate command returns a list of all the files on the system that contain the word "bash" in their path.

You can also use wildcards with the locate command to search for files with a specific pattern:

locate *.txt

This will return a list of all the .txt files on the system.

The locate command is a powerful tool for quickly searching for files on your system. It's much faster than using the find command, especially for large file systems.

Summary

In this lab, you first learned about the purpose of the updatedb command in Linux. The updatedb command is used to update the locate database, which is a database that stores information about the location of files on the system. This database is used by the locate command to quickly search for files on the system. You then learned how to update the locate database using the updatedb command. The updatedb command scans the entire file system and updates the locate database with the current file locations. This process can take some time, depending on the size of your file system. Finally, you learned how to use the locate command to quickly search for files on your system after updating the locate database.

Linux Commands Cheat Sheet