On Wed, Feb 03, 2010 at 07:00:56AM -0800, J.C. Roberts wrote:
> On Mon, 1 Feb 2010 13:57:09 +0000 Owain Ainsworth
> <zer...@googlemail.com> wrote:
>
> > On Mon, Feb 01, 2010 at 07:42:57AM +0200, Jussi Peltola wrote:
> > > On Mon, Feb 01, 2010 at 04:54:49AM +0000, Jacob Meuser wrote:
> > > > On Mon, Feb 01, 2010 at 05:57:11AM +0200, Jussi Peltola wrote:
> > > > > On Mon, Feb 01, 2010 at 02:35:54AM +0000, Jacob Meuser wrote:
> > > > > > yeah, but wasn't the original issue that started this thread
> > > > > > was that the locate database was "too old"? maybe if locate,
> > > > > > apropos, etc would print "databse last updated 3 weeks 2 days
> > > > > > ago"?
> > > > >
> > > > > This should be done in any case. IMHO it's a bug if they don't
> > > > > complain loudly, or even refuse to run with a stale database.
> > > > > Stale caches are evil, even if the man page warns about them.
> > > >
> > > > yeah, but if your computer hasn't been on for 3 weeks and then
> > > > locate won't work because the database is 3 weeks old, that would
> > > > suck.
> > >
> > > Of course it would need a switch to force it to run. But I guess a
> > > warning is better since locate might be used in scripts and it's not
> > > good to add extra knobs to existing programs where they don't gain
> > > much.
> >
> > Please, no.
> >
> > If nothing has changed on my machine in 3 weeks (say one of the
> > laptops I use infrequently) I would utterly hate having locate et al.
> > bitch at me continually.
> >
> > If *you* really want something like that, this is what shell
> > functions are for, just check the database mtime, and print to stderr
> > if it's too old, then run locate. Please don't try and force that on
> > everyone else.
> >
>
> I agree with Owain. I mean no offense to Tedu, but there is no viable
> need for serious modifications or significant changes in default
> behavior... And worse, trying to "fix" this supposed problem will
> most likely cause other problems.
For the record, i'm not against something that runs the ${INTERVAL}y
scripts in a more intelligent fashion, as long as it is simple and
non-intrusive.
I was just registering a strong dislike of making things like locate(1)
nag about old databases.
-0- - who often leaves his main laptop on overnight.
--
In the land of the dark, the Ship of the Sun
is driven by the Grateful Dead.
-- Egyptian Book of the Dead
