updating question...
Guys, Using Wheezy, debian. In the past I have always done my updates w. #aptitude update #aptitude safe-upgrade #aptitude autoclean #updatedb Everything is working just fine and no problem except the updatedb command. I know it used to actually update the file database and sometimes it actually took some time to do it. And sometimes when I would install a file from outside aptitude I would have to run updatedb to get the system to recognize it. Now when I run updatedb it seem like it is doing nothing. It takes no time at all yet so far am having no recognition problems. Am just wondering if I'm actually doing anything by trying to run it. E.g is it actually updating? Anyone have any knowledge in this area? TIA Whit -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-amd64-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/4da6edd6.6030...@comcast.net
Re: updating question...
On Thu, Apr 14, 2011 at 08:51:34AM -0400, Whit Hansell wrote: Guys, Using Wheezy, debian. In the past I have always done my updates w. #aptitude update #aptitude safe-upgrade #aptitude autoclean #updatedb Everything is working just fine and no problem except the updatedb command. I know it used to actually update the file database and sometimes it actually took some time to do it. And sometimes when I would install a file from outside aptitude I would have to run updatedb to get the system to recognize it. Now when I run updatedb it seem like it is doing nothing. It takes no time at all yet so far am having no recognition problems. Am just wondering if I'm actually doing anything by trying to run it. E.g is it actually updating? A couple of caveats: 1) This isn't strictly amd64 related. 2) updatedb isn't actually related to the package database, but maintains a list of all files on your system. It sounds to me like your locate package has been upgraded to mlocate. As per the package status of mlocate, mlocate differs from plain locate in that when you run locate foo you only see files to which you have access. Also instead of re-reading the whole filesystem, timestamps are taken into account and only changed files are recorded in the database. As a result updatedb is, as you have found, a lot faster. For the record, there's no real need to call updatedb after an update as there should be a cron job that does that for you. However, there's also no harm in it and I can see a reason for doing so. -- Darac signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Re: updating question...
Darac, Thanks so much for the reply. If I put the question in the wrong forum/list, I apologize but while my knowledge of LInux is not specifically noob, it is not such that I would be able to recognize whether a situation was related to debian-amd64, or to wheezy/testing. But thanks again for the reply and I appreciate it a lot. Helps w. my understanding of things. Regards, Whit On 04/14/2011 10:35 AM, Darac Marjal wrote: On Thu, Apr 14, 2011 at 08:51:34AM -0400, Whit Hansell wrote: Guys, Using Wheezy, debian. In the past I have always done my updates w. #aptitude update #aptitude safe-upgrade #aptitude autoclean #updatedb Everything is working just fine and no problem except the updatedb command. I know it used to actually update the file database and sometimes it actually took some time to do it. And sometimes when I would install a file from outside aptitude I would have to run updatedb to get the system to recognize it. Now when I run updatedb it seem like it is doing nothing. It takes no time at all yet so far am having no recognition problems. Am just wondering if I'm actually doing anything by trying to run it. E.g is it actually updating? A couple of caveats: 1) This isn't strictly amd64 related. 2) updatedb isn't actually related to the package database, but maintains a list of all files on your system. It sounds to me like your locate package has been upgraded to mlocate. As per the package status of mlocate, mlocate differs from plain locate in that when you run locate foo you only see files to which you have access. Also instead of re-reading the whole filesystem, timestamps are taken into account and only changed files are recorded in the database. As a result updatedb is, as you have found, a lot faster. For the record, there's no real need to call updatedb after an update as there should be a cron job that does that for you. However, there's also no harm in it and I can see a reason for doing so. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-amd64-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/4da71ef8.7010...@comcast.net
Re: updating question...
On Thu, Apr 14, 2011 at 03:35:10PM +0100, Darac Marjal wrote: It sounds to me like your locate package has been upgraded to mlocate. As per the package status of mlocate, mlocate differs from plain locate in that when you run locate foo you only see files to which you have access. Also instead of re-reading the whole filesystem, timestamps are taken into account and only changed files are recorded in the database. As a result updatedb is, as you have found, a lot faster. Interesting. I wonder how it manages to find the changed files without reading the entire directory tree? It shouldn't have to read the files themselves in any case, should it? -- hendrik -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-amd64-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/20110414210404.gb12...@topoi.pooq.com
