On Sat, Dec 16, 2006 at 10:02:40AM -0800, Marc Shapiro wrote: [...] > >> > >>I just ran locate again this morning. It found all the file and > >>symlinks in all the system directories that the install of > >>flashplayer-nonfree placed there. It DID NOT find the files in my > >>user directory, or in my wife's user directory tree. These are the > >>places that it did find it yesterday after I manually ran updatedb. I > >>ran updatedb MANUALLY this morning, and now it finds all copies of the > >>file, in system AND user directories. Why would it find the files > >>after a manual run of updatedb, and then lose them overnight? > >> > >>Here is a copy of my /etc/updatedb.conf: [...] > >># run find as this user > >>LOCALUSER="nobody" > >>export LOCALUSER > >> > > > >I suspect this is the pertinent bit. per nam updatedb, $LOCALUSER > >controls which user is used to search local directories. When the cron > >job runs, it uses "nobody", when you run it, it runs as you. So you > >(most likely) have read permissions on your local dirs, but I bet > >"nobody" doesn't. > > > BINGO!!! > > Both /home an ~/ have permissions of 755, giving read access to everyone > (my wife and I are the only persons with physical access). However, > ~/.mozilla has permissions of 700, no access to anyone but me! > > Is it reasonable to let updatedb run as root, so that ALL directories > would be included, or is this a Bad Idea (TM)? > FWIW, my .mozilla is 755 but I don't know why that is. Probably "safer" to just chmod .mozilla than have another process running as root. I don't know what the dangers of running updatedb as root could possibly be but... A
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