Locate and updatedb doesn't work. What should I do?

Question

My locate command doesn't work, but I found out I had to run updatedb. However, upon invoking that command, bash says bash: updatedb: command not found. What should I do?

Answer 1

I think you need to install the locate program. In a debian lenny system, the /usr/bin/updatedb file is a symlink to /etc/alternatives/updatedb which is a symlink to /usr/bin/updatedb.findutils.

Using dpkg -S you can find what package a file belongs to:

$ dpkg -S /usr/bin/updatedb.findutils 
locate: /usr/bin/updatedb.findutils

So I think you need to install locate and then run updatedb as root.

Edit: yes, you need the locate package. In the file /usr/share/doc/findutils/NEWS.Debian.gz you can read:

locate is no longer included in the findutils package. It has been split off to a separate package "locate".

and then in /usr/share/doc/findutils/changelog.Debian.gz, on the changelog on 11 nov 2007:

Split off locate/updatedb to a separate package.

Answer 2

Either updatedb is not installed, either it's not in your $PATH variable.

When running updatedb, you must do it as root or with sudo.

Answer 3

Must of the command that must be run as root are not in the user's $PATH so just run:

$ sudo updatedb

and it should work.

Answer 4

It was not installed and not in the directories listed by natxo, but I found a solution to install it. Thank you for the lead guys!

http://www.nicecabbage.com/2009/08/install-locate-and-updatedb-on-centos-and-debian/

In root: apt-get install locate

Answer 5

You have to invoke 'updatedb' with administrative privileges. As far is I remeber, findutils are part of a standard Debian distribution /installation, so have a look at /etc/updatedb.conf and /etc/cron.daily/(s)locate.

If nothing's broken, the built of a fresh updatedb [locate database] is a daily cronjob, so you dont'have to worry about this anyway