Re: new option for findutil's updatedb

[Hans-Bernhard Broeker]

Peter Icaza <address@hidden> wrote:

> for these reasons, updatedb fails because sort runs out of space on the /tmp
> file system.

Running out of diskspace is a general possible problem, of course, and
no amount of trickery in the tools can really avoid it happening.
Maybe you should just refuse to provide 'locate' services, then, on
the grounds of users' own decisions making it impossible. Maybe they'd
learn not to abuse /tmp, then.  Or schedule the updatedb exactly after
the admin did his monthly cleanup job, so /tmp is reasonable
uncluttered.

> therefore, may i suggest a -T option be used for updatedb to let sort use a
> different dir for its' temp files?

Why not just modify the environment of 'updatedb' a bit, passing it a
different $TMPDIR? I.e. instead of changing the updatedb code to allow

        updatedb -T /some/where/else

just run

        env TMPDIR=/some/where/else updatedb

and be done with it?



-- 
Hans-Bernhard Broeker (address@hidden)
Even if all the snow were burnt, ashes would remain.