Re: locate(1) man page hard to understand, please rewrite

[Stepan Kasal]

Hallo!

On 08 Jul 2002 14:42:20 +0200, Alfred M. Szmidt <address@hidden> wrote:
> "Paul D. Smith" <address@hidden> writes:
> > 
> >   $ locate /tmp
[...]
> >   $ locate '*/tmp*'
> 
> Sorry, but that is just wrong according to the output of locate:
> 
> $ locate /tmp
> /home/ams/src/hurd/tmpfs
[...]
> This looks like a bug to me.

As I've already mentioned in a previous post in this thread, the above
locate commands are equivalent and Paul was really wrong about this.

OTOH, this is not bug, it's documented in the man page.

> $ locate */tmp
> /home/ams/share/doc/tmp
> 
> But it doesn't match /tmp for some odd reason.  `*' should match any
> "zero or more characters"

I'd say it probably matches, try "locate '*/etc'".

The reason is that the updatedb command is often configured to omit the
most obvious useless directories, like /tmp and /mnt .
Search your cron configuration for details.

> Who is the current maintainer of GNU findutils?

I'd try looking to the ChangeLog who releases new versions.
It seems to be Kevin Dalley, kevin seti org.

HTH,
        Stepan