LOCATE.CONF(5)

💖 locate.conf(5) — File Formats Manual 🎀

okay bestie, this is the page for locate.conf(5) and yup — it's filed under File Formats Manual. It's the config file that tells locate.updatedb(8) how to behave, and locate.updatedb(8) is the thing that creates the locate(1) database. Slay. ✨

🎀 NAME 🎀

locate.conf — the locate database configuration file 💅

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

The locate.conf file specifies the behavior of locate.updatedb(8), which creates the locate(1) database.

The locate.conf file contains a list of newline separated records. Each record is composed of a keyword and arguments, separated by white space. Arguments with embedded shell metacharacters must be quoted in sh(1) style, no cap. Lines beginning with # are treated as comments and ignored. But a # in the middle of a line does not start a comment — iykyk.

The configuration options are as follows:

• database filename — specify the location of the locate(1) database to be created. Default: /var/db/locate.database.
• ignore pattern ... — ignore files or directories. When building the database, do not descend into files or directories that match one of the specified patterns. The matched files or directories are not stored to the database. Default: Not specified.
• ignorecontents pattern ... — ignore contents of directories. When building the database, do not descend into files or directories that match one of the specified patterns. The matched files or directories themselves are stored to the database. Default: Not specified.
• ignorefs type ... — ignore file system by type, adding type to the default list. When building the database, do not descend into file systems that are of the specified type. The mount points are not stored to the database. If a ! is prepended to type, the meaning is negated, that is, ignore file systems which do not have the type. As a special case, if none is specified for type, the ignorefs list is cleared and all file systems are traversed. type is used as an argument to find(1) -fstype. The sysctl(8) command can be used to find out the types of file systems that are available on the system:

sysctl vfs.generic.fstypes

Default: !local cd9660 fdesc kernfs procfs.

• searchpath directory ... — specify base directories to be put in the database. Default: /.
• workdir directory — specify the working directory of locate.updatedb, in which a temporary file is placed. The temporary file is a list of all files, and you should specify a directory that has enough space to hold it. Default: /tmp.

Refer to find(1) for the details of pattern (see -path expression) and type (see -fstype expression).

🗂️ FILES 🗂️

• /etc/locate.conf — the file locate.conf resides in /etc.

👀 SEE ALSO 👀

• find(1), locate(1), locate.updatedb(8), sysctl(8)

🕰️ HISTORY 🕰️

The locate.conf file format first appeared in NetBSD 2.0. ✨

👑 AUTHORS 👑

ITOH Yasufumi — iconic author credit, periodt. 💜

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Debian 🌸 April 25, 2020 🌸 LOCATE.CONF(5) — mwah, that's the sign-off bestie 💖