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If I want to use the locate command on a Linux machine, I usually run sudo updatedb first to update the database. I can run the locate command on OS X 10.5 but I can't find updatedb. What's the corresponding updatedb for the mac?
Thierry Lam
Posted 2010-02-16T15:23:59.240
Reputation: 3 497
333
It's locate.updatedb on Mac.
sudo /usr/libexec/locate.updatedb
For more information see the locate.updatedb man page.
John T
Posted 2010-02-16T15:23:59.240
Reputation: 149 037
9That man page also claims: It is typically run once a week by the /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.locate.plist job. (And man locate tells one about that script:
/usr/libexec/locate.updatedb Script to update the locate database) – Arjan – 2010-02-16T15:29:39.243
5@Arjan : It should be run once a week, but the default it's disabled and the time when it should be done is 3am on Sundays (or something similar), which isn't really useful :) – Studer – 2010-02-16T15:36:13.443
Also, if you don't find files which you expect to, note this relevant caveat from the the BUGS section of the manpage:
The locate database is typically built by user ''nobody'' and the locate.updatedb(8) utility skips directories which are not readable for user ''nobody'', group ''nobody'', or world. For example, if your HOME directory is not world-readable, none of your files are in the database
f you get shell-init: error retrieving current directory: getcwd: cannot access parent directories: Permission denied cd to your home directory, i.e. cd ~ – Michael Durrant – 2016-08-29T12:15:26.217
On MacOS Sierra if you get the permission denied error try going to root cd / and then executing the sudo /usr/libexec/locate.updatedb. – yossile – 2017-06-26T11:20:42.163
@michael thank you for pointing out that mdfind is an alternative to using locate on Mac OS. – Noah Sussman – 2017-08-22T19:19:54.170
NOTE: patiently wait for the command to finish. There's no output when running the command, making it feel like it's not working, but it is. Just wait. – skplunkerin – 2020-01-21T20:19:18.660
On linux I usually run sudo ionice -c3 updatedb which tells updatedb to share the i/o controller nicely (io nice) but I don't think this command is available on mac. I also miss having the -r regular expression flag which can be used with the GNU locate, although I'm not sure I want to use homebrew and install the GNU locate mentioned by @Grogs – cwd – 2012-06-16T12:41:48.300
3Example macosx alternative to "locate (-r)" and "updatedb" that uses spotlight ("-i" optional of course): mdfind -name "mp4" | egrep -i "^/Users.Downloads/.Stuff" – michael – 2013-01-30T19:35:25.220
87
You can do sudo ln -s /usr/libexec/locate.updatedb /usr/local/bin/updatedb to make the updatedb command available.
Igor Vigasin
Posted 2010-02-16T15:23:59.240
Reputation: 871
Heh, I just posted this as a comment.. Then saw you said this. I think this is a nice little mod to make. :) – James T Snell – 2015-07-02T16:51:48.727
4or alias it in your .bash_profile – Jim Johnson – 2016-08-09T17:26:16.377
20
Personally, I just installed findutils (use MacPorts or Homebrew).
Then you have GNU locate and updatedb.
updatedb won't work without sudo.
Personally I prefer to have a per user locatedb though; if you sudo other users will know the names/locations of all your files.
I have a cron job to run:
updatedb --localpaths='/Users/grogs' --output='/Users/grogs/tmp/locatedb'
And in my .zshrc .bashrc/.bashprofile:
export LOCATE_PATH="~/tmp/locatedb"
Grogs
Posted 2010-02-16T15:23:59.240
Reputation: 371
2Add /opt/local/libexec/gnubin at the start of your path, if you want the coreutils and findutils installed by macports to be available with their original names (and not their g-prefixed versions). – Ioannis Filippidis – 2014-09-18T22:01:28.317
3
Brew-installing findutils on OS X Mavericks gave me a gupdatedb command, not an updatedb one. Unfortunately this command gave me an error described here (where your SO answer is referenced). Ultimately I've aliased updatedb to LC_ALL=’C’ sudo updatedb as a workaround, but I don't know if this is a long-term solution.
2
If you run locate without first updating the database, you have a chance to see the OS's recommended way by its output.
WARNING: The locate database (/var/db/locate.database) does not exist.
To create the database, run the following command:
sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.locate.plist
Tankman六四
Posted 2010-02-16T15:23:59.240
Reputation: 349
0
Actually you can use the GNU locate & update in mac too.
brew install findutils --with-default-names
export PATH="$(brew --prefix findutils)/libexec/gnubin:$PATH"
export MANPATH="$(brew --prefix findutils)/libexec/gnuman:$MANPATH"
which locate
sully
Posted 2010-02-16T15:23:59.240
Reputation: 1
2When first running
locateon an OS X box it tells you to runsudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.locate.plist. – viam0Zah – 2010-02-17T15:24:35.38013Depending on what you need to use
locatefor, you might find it more convenient to use the command line interface to Spotlight,mdfind, since the Spotlight database is nearly always up-to-date, and offers a lot more functionality than locate.man mdfind– Paul R – 2010-02-17T16:09:08.003Well upatedb and locate are nice things but they require to run updatedb regularly (either updatedb runs regularly and this slows down your system at inconvenient times, or locate shows references to files which are not there anymore). So I think that instead of setting up locate/updatedb it would perhaps be better to get familiar with (the far more powerful) find. – amo-ej1 – 2010-02-16T16:43:26.400
9While find is useful for lots of things, it does need to go through the filesystem each time. If you can narrow down the places where you are looking, that's fine. The advantage of locate is that keeps its own database, and so doesn't need to search each time. This is especially important with large and/or remote filesystems. I think that each has its place. – KeithB – 2010-02-16T17:00:50.103