Why is /var/lib/mlocate.db almost 800 MB?

Question

Can I do something about it? I'm running out of disk space.

score 36 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 10 '12 at 19:37

On one of my systems that acts as a backup server, mlocate.db hit 9GB. The solution was to exclude the backup directories from locate, since I had no need to search them.

I did this by adding the backup directory to PRUNEPATHS in /etc/updatedb.conf.

Running sudo updatedb then reduced it to 1.6MB (and saves a huge amount of time indexing all of those files).

score 9 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 03 '11 at 12:50

9

If you have lots and lots of files on your machine, you may want to consider pruning some paths from the database. You can do this in /etc/updatedb.conf under PRUNEPATHS. You can also prune file systems (like nfs, if you so desire).

answered Aug 03 '11 at 12:50

Zach Bethel

91

Lekensteyn · Answer 3 · 2011-01-28T21:17:47.287

2

800MB sounds pretty much. My /var/lib/mlocate/mlocate.db is about 8MB only (fresh install on 10.04 release date). You can safely delete it, if you run sudo updatedb, it'll be recreated.

edited Jan 28 '11 at 21:17

answered Jan 28 '11 at 14:07

Lekensteyn

178,446

score -1 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 28 '11 at 13:41

-1

Its a database of all files in your root directory. It is used by locate utility. if you delete this file locate will no longer work.

answered Jan 28 '11 at 13:41

binW

13,194

Why is /var/lib/mlocate.db almost 800 MB?

4 Answers4