Re: processes spawned by usr 'nobody'?

["Steve Lamb" <morpheus@rpglink.com>]

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On Fri, 7 May 1999 15:33:11 -0400, Person, Roderick wrote:

>I have noticed that every so often my HD would start to whine like it was
>being search. It made me curious and a ran a top and I found the a the find
>utility was started by user 'nobody'. Is this a normal thing to have
>processes spawned by the nobody user? Or is this a problem as I think it to
>be?

    This is normal.  A few relevant C&P follow.

{morpheus@:/etc/cron.daily}less find
#! /bin/sh
#
# cron script to update the `find.codes' database.
#
# Written by Ian A. Murdock <imurdock@debian.org> and
#            Kevin Dalley <kevin@aimnet.com>

if [ -f /etc/updatedb.conf ]; then
  . /etc/updatedb.conf
fi

cd / && updatedb --localuser=nobody 2>/dev/null


{morpheus@:/etc}less `which updatedb`
#!/bin/sh
# updatedb -- build a locate pathname database
# Copyright (C) 1994 Free Software Foundation, Inc.


    So what you're seeing is the process which updates the database that the
locate command uses to locate things.

- -- 
         Steve C. Lamb         | I'm your priest, I'm your shrink, I'm your
         ICQ: 5107343          | main connection to the switchboard of souls.
- -------------------------------+---------------------------------------------

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