locate command vanished from solus.

Abhinav1217

One of my scripts for failing so I was trying to check location of a file. As usual, I tried locate steam but for some reason, it said locate command is not found.
I assumed that somehow, it got uninstalled, although I don't know how, but I tried to install it again, eopkg told me that package doesn't even exists.
I didn't believe it at first since I have been using locate since forever, I ran eopkg search locate and turns out, locate doesn't exists on the repos anymore.

abhinav@abhinav-sol ~ $ sudo eopkg search locate
libxcursor-32bit-dbginfo   - 32-bit debug symbols for libxcursor
perl-file-basedir          - Perl Freedesktop.org Base Directory implementation
bdwgc-devel                - Development files for bdwgc
libxcursor-dbginfo         - Debug symbols for libxcursor
proc-maps                  - Tool for analyzing the information provided by /proc/*/maps
libxcursor-32bit-devel     - Development files for 32-bit libxcursor
dmg2img                    - Program that lets you convert .dmg files to .img files
bdwgc                      - Boehm-Demer-Weiser Garbage Collector
plocate-dbginfo            - Debug symbols for plocate
perl-file-sharedir-install - Install read-only date files from Perl
stow                       - A symlink farm manager
libxcursor-32bit           - 32-bit libraries for libxcursor
proc-maps-dbginfo          - Debug symbols for proc-maps
perl-file-sharedir         - Locate per-dist and per-module shared files
dmg2img-dbginfo            - Debug symbols for dmg2img
budgie-visualspace-applet  - Show and manage windows in workspaces for the Budgie Desktop
bdwgc-dbginfo              - Debug symbols for bdwgc
libxcursor                 - X Cursor management library
libxcursor-devel           - Development files for libxcursor
python-evdev               - Python bindings for the Linux input subsystem
catfish                    - Versatile file searching tool
plocate                    - plocate, a much faster locate
bdwgc-32bit                - 32-bit libraries for bdwgc
bdwgc-32bit-devel          - Development files for 32-bit bdwgc
python-evdev-dbginfo       - Debug symbols for python-evdev
bdwgc-32bit-dbginfo        - 32-bit debug symbols for bdwgc
abhinav@abhinav-sol ~ $

Q: What has happened? updatedb does exists but locate has vanished from my system.
Q: plocate doesn't have permission to use locate.db, so it is not a viable solution. a lot of my scripts depends locate command.

brent

Abhinav1217 What has happened?

https://dev.getsol.us/D12486 12/16/2021 they did the mlocate/plocate switcheroo.

3/22 a couple weeks ago, plocate replaces locate entirely--- (https://dev.getsol.us/R5509:6fb7607c27f4f40f9de4467f0b51581fac5bce83). in the notes "plocate is setup to overwrite the locatedb database from findutils if it exists"

In theory then,

Abhinav1217 plocate doesn't have permission to use locate.db,

you shouldn't have this permission problem using plocate with locate.db, according the packagers notes.

sounds like something simple needs to be corrected on your end. stay tuned for an expert. these are my 2 cents just passing thru the devtracker too late on a sunday..

Abhinav1217

In my case, locate was uninstalled, but plocate was not installed.

abhinav@abhinav-sol ~ $ plocate openweather
/var/db/locate/locate.db: Permission denied
abhinav@abhinav-sol ~ $ sudo !!
sudo plocate openweather
Password:
/home/abhinav/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/openweather-extension@jenslody.de
...
...

Also, is it possible to set locate as alias or binary name for plocate, out of the box, during install, so that existing scripts doesn't break surprising users who weren't aware of the change.

I never heard about plocate before today. Does it uses updatedb to update database or is there something else I need to install?

johano

Abhinav1217, an alias locate='plocate' works fine with my existing scripts using locate .

I don't know what your permission issue is, maybe try: sudo updatedb in case the database is messed up, or sudo eopkg it --reinstall plocate?

Yes, it uses the database generated by updateb. It's much faster than locate to return a search result. Have a look at the man page to see a description.

Hope you get it sorted

ReillyBrogan

CC @joebonrichie. Perhaps plocate should be added as a rundep of findutils and have aliases added for locate and mlocate?

kyrios

yeah perhaps we could add a symbolic link in the package

joebonrichie

I can add a symlink from plocate to locate sure, but you will need to run updatedb first regardless. I don't want to add it as a rundep of findutils as that will involve moving plocate and liburing to system.base bloating it. plocate is a good candidate to add to the default packages in the iso image though for new installs.

joebonrichie

Ok sorted now in unstable.

Abhinav1217

I did run sudo updatedb after installing plocate, and it didn't solve the permission issue.
@johano I tried reinstalling it, it didn't solve the permission issue. About alias, I know I could alias it myself, but my suggestion was to have it aliased out of the box, post-install. locate is like a de-facto core command, all the tutorials, blogs, scripts, etc refer to it, even though stuff like fd is gaining popularity. Removing it from repo itself is breaking, even for mid-ranged experienced users.

Abhinav1217

Should I try to reinstall updatedb command itself to repair the permission issue?
Reinstalled findutils and plocate, Still having permission denied issue. For some reason, plocate belongs to gdm group. Any guidance regarding this ?


abhinav@abhinav-sol ~ $ ls -la $(which plocate)
-rwxr-sr-x 1 root gdm 317800 Mar 22 18:47 /usr/bin/plocate
abhinav@abhinav-sol ~ $ ls -la $(which updatedb)
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 108824 Mar 22 18:47 /usr/sbin/updatedb