locate command is giving error while "user!=ROOT" .....

aditya007 · 03-12-2010, 03:56 AM

Hi, Naman here...

problem:

when I am using "LOCATE" command in linux command promt,like..

~]$ locate file1.txt
locate: can not open `/var/lib/mlocate/mlocate.db': Permission denied

This error(in red color)is occurred.

when I am doing as a root user....it gives result,
without any errors.

Would any one help me?
~~~~

trappa01 · 03-12-2010, 05:46 AM

Hi,
I think that you'll find that /var/lib/mlocate/mlocate.db cannot be accesses by "normal users". Whilst root check the owner and group of the db file.
Do a "which locate" to find the file that you are actually running. It is probably a link that points to another executable. Check the rights to this file. It should be owned by root and have the same group as the .db file. It should also have the SetGID set to on.
I've just checked on one of our machines (we have slocate and not mlocate but the principle should be the same).

example
[root@host1 ~]# ls -l /var/lib/slocate/slocate.db
-rw-r----- 1 root slocate 843345 Sep 12 2008 /var/lib/slocate/slocate.db
[root@host1 ~]# which locate
/usr/bin/locate
[root@host1 ~]# ls -l /usr/bin/locate
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root slocate 7 Jan 14 16:07 /usr/bin/locate -> slocate
[root@host1 ~]# ls -l /usr/bin/slocate
-rwxr-sr-x 1 root slocate 38516 Aug 22 2007 /usr/bin/slocate

arashi256 · 03-12-2010, 06:01 AM

You need to be the root user for locate to look in those directories.

jamescondron · 03-12-2010, 06:24 AM

No you don't

Code:

jc@jcmain:~$ locate mtab|head 
/etc/mtab
/etc/init.d/mtab.sh
/etc/init.d/udev-mtab
/etc/rcS.d/S12mtab.sh
/etc/rcS.d/S36udev-mtab
/home/redundant/toolbox/commblks/commblksdemos/commwcdma_lib_primenumtable.mat
/home/redundant/toolbox/compiler/mcr/matlab/iofun/@rptgen/@rptsummtable
/home/redundant/toolbox/compiler/mcr/matlab/iofun/@rptgen/@rptsummtable/execute.m
/home/redundant/toolbox/compiler/mcr/matlab/iofun/@rptgen/@rptsummtable/execute.p
/home/redundant/toolbox/compiler/mcr/matlab/iofun/@rptgen/@rptsummtable/getContentType.m

All of these files are in directories I don't own, yet I can run locate as a normal user (to coin a phrase).

This is an odd one, somewhere your permissions are dodgy, as trappa said. Watch:

Code:

jc@jcmain:~$ updatedb
updatedb: can not open a temporary file for `/var/lib/mlocate/mlocate.db'
jc@jcmain:~$ ls -l  /var/lib/mlocate/mlocate.db
-rw-r----- 1 root mlocate 17352445 2010-03-12 07:39 /var/lib/mlocate/mlocate.db

See, I can't run updatedb without being root because that updates the database backend. However, I can run 'locate' (as seen above).

Chances are, the problem is in how your slocate group is setup, though I can't tell you for sure, never having had this problem.

arashi256 · 03-12-2010, 06:41 AM

Oops - James gets a cookie. Just tried something similar on my system and he's right. Ignore what I said

trappa01 · 03-12-2010, 07:32 AM

James,
could you do a "which locate", then "ls -l" the resulting file. If its a link, please do a "ls -l" of the target too.

Thanks