daily/ 
 14: 
 From: farblos@vodafonemail.de 
  
 Package: locate 
 Version: 4.10.0-3 
 Severity: wishlist 
 X-Debbugs-Cc: farblos@vodafonemail.de 
  
 Dear Maintainer, 
  
 this is an RFE, actually ... 
  
 I am on a single-user system, and I want my locate database to contain 
 information even on those files that are not accessible to a 
 non-administrative user.  In other words, I'd like to call 
 `updatedb.findutils' and the dependent `find' as `root'. 
  
 The right approach to configure that seems setting `LOCALUSER' to the 
 empty string in `/etc/updatedb.findutils.cron.local'.  Because 
 `updatedb.findutils' handles an empty `LOCALUSER' explicitly by not 
 switching users: 
  
 ,---- 
 | if [ "$LOCALUSER" != "" ]; then 
 |   # : A1 
 |   su $LOCALUSER `select_shell $LOCALUSER` -c \\ 
 |   "$find $SEARCHPATHS $FINDOPTIONS [...]" 
 | else 
 |   # : A2 
 |   $find $SEARCHPATHS $FINDOPTIONS [...] 
 | fi 
 `---- 
  
 In contrast to that, `/etc/cron.daily/locate' handles the case of an 
 empty `LOCALUSER' more or less by chance, since the `getent' call 
  
 ,---- 
 | if getent passwd $LOCALUSER > /dev/null ; then 
 |   cd / && nice -n ${NICE:-10} updatedb.findutils 2>/dev/null 
 | else 
 |   echo "User $LOCALUSER does not exist." 
 |   exit 1 
 | fi 
 `---- 
  
 means "get all users" if unquoted `$LOCALUSER' expands to naught, which 
 results in a zero exit value. 
  
 Maybe the following would be a bit more expressive: 
  
 ,---- 
 | # check for an explictly empty LOCALUSER, which inhibits the user 
 | # switch otherwise done by updatedb.findutils 
 | if [ -z "$LOCALUSER" ] || getent passwd $LOCALUSER > /dev/null ; then 
 |   cd / && nice -n ${NICE:-10} updatedb.findutils 2>/dev/null 
 | else 
 |   echo "User $LOCALUSER does not exist." 
 |   exit 1 
 | fi 
 `---- 
  
 Thanks for maintaining the locate package! 
  
 -- System Information: 
 Debian Release: forky/sid 
   APT prefers testing 
   APT policy: (500, 'testing') 
 Architecture: amd64 (x86_64) 
  
 Kernel: Linux 6.16.12+deb14+1-amd64 (SMP w/16 CPU threads; PREEMPT) 
 Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), 
 LANGUAGE=en_US:en 
 Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash 
 Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system) 
 LSM: AppArmor: enabled 
  
 Versions of packages locate depends on: 
 ii  findutils  4.10.0-3 
 ii  libc6      2.41-12 
  
 locate recommends no packages. 
  
 locate suggests no packages. 
  
 -- no debconf information 
  
 --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05 
  * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)