Install updatedb and locate on CentOS / RedHat

[Miraenda]

Install mlocate

If you do not already have locate available on your server, run the following command in root shell to install it via yum:

yum install mlocate

Running updatedb

If you do have locate installed, but updatedb has not processed yet on the server, you will receive the following error when trying to run the locate command:

warning: locate: could not open database: /var/lib/slocate/slocate.db: 
No such file or directory warning: You need to run the 'updatedb' command
(as root) to create the database.
Please have a look at /etc/updatedb.conf to enable the daily cron job.

You would simply run this command to correct that situation:

updatedb

Cron for updatedb

Normally, updatedb should automatically run daily as a cron update to ensure that the locate database is up-to-date. If this is not happening, you will receive the following error when you try to run a locate command:

warning: locate: warning: database /var/lib/slocate/slocate.db' is more 
than 8 days old

To fix the cron not running daily, you would need to go to /etc/cron.daily and edit the file slocate.conf which might have the following in it:

#!/bin/sh
. /etc/updatedb.conf
[ "$DAILY_UPDATE" != "yes" ] && exit 0
renice +19 -p $$ >/dev/null 2>&1
/usr/bin/updatedb

This command means it will not be yes (line 3 where it has != means not) for updating daily, so simply remove the ! in that line, which results in the following:

#!/bin/sh
. /etc/updatedb.conf
[ "$DAILY_UPDATE" = "yes" ] && exit 0
renice +19 -p $$ >/dev/null 2>&1
/usr/bin/updatedb

Save the file and then updatedb will run the next time the cron runs. You can see when the cron runs by looking at /etc/crontab file:

cat /etc/crontab

This will return output similar to the following:

SHELL=/bin/bash
PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
MAILTO=root
HOME=/

# run-parts
01 * * * * root run-parts /etc/cron.hourly
02 4 * * * root run-parts /etc/cron.daily
22 4 * * 0 root run-parts /etc/cron.weekly
42 4 1 * * root run-parts /etc/cron.monthly

If you want to change the time when cron.daily runs, change the interval in that 02 4 * * * root run-parts /etc/cron.daily line. The existing one means it will run at 4:02am every day, every month, every day of the week.