#1012619 want /etc/updatedb/updatedb.conf.d/

Package:
plocate
Source:
plocate
Description:
much faster locate
Submitter:
Ian Jackson
Date:
2022-06-11 12:15:04 UTC
Severity:
normal
Tags:
#1012619#5
Date:
2022-06-10 12:00:17 UTC
From:
To:
The updatedb cron job reads /etc/updatedb.conf.

I have a package (chiark-backup) which sometimes mounts snapshot volumes in a
predicteable location, and which should not be scanned by updatedb.
I don't want to edit /etc/updatedb.conf in my package's maintscripts.

Rather, I would like to be able to droo a file into some .d directory,
containing
  PRUNEPATHS+=' /var/lib/chiark-backup '
or some such.

I'm filing this as "normal" rather than "wishlist" because although
it's a feature request here in mlocate, it's a *bug* in chiark-utils
(#1012617).

Thanks,
Ian.
#1012619#12
Date:
2022-06-10 12:08:25 UTC
From:
To:
Hi Ian,

I understand the desire, but what you're asking for is basically making
updatedb.conf into a multi-file language (there's no += at the moment,
for instance), and I think this is too niche to spend resources and
complexity on. I can tag this as wontfix or something, but I'm not
sure if it would make much difference?

I assume you mean plocate now, not mlocate, but no big change (they share
config file parsers).

/* Steinar */
#1012619#17
Date:
2022-06-10 12:34:29 UTC
From:
To:
The rsbackup package would also benefit from this -- it keeps snapshots
at /var/lib/rsbackup/snapshots.
#1012619#22
Date:
2022-06-11 01:12:50 UTC
From:
To:
Steinar H. Gunderson writes ("Re: Bug#1012619: want /etc/updatedb/updatedb.conf.d/"):

Err, yes, sorry.

How do you suggest I fix #1012617 ?

Ian.
#1012619#27
Date:
2022-06-11 07:23:28 UTC
From:
To:
I don't know how your system works (and there's no documentation that I can
find), so I'm not in a position to say much about it. (If you use
filesystem-level snapshots, PRUNE_BIND_MOUNTS would take a fair amount of
such structures, but I really don't know what you're doing.) But there's
nothing preventing you from simply documenting that if you are bothered by
this, you should exclude the relevant directories in updatedb.conf (manually,
or through something like Puppet).

/* Steinar */
#1012619#32
Date:
2022-06-11 11:49:09 UTC
From:
To:
Steinar H. Gunderson writes ("Re: Bug#1012619: want /etc/updatedb/updatedb.conf.d/"):

Sorry for being tetchy.

I still think I need to do better here.

LVM level snapshots.  That's not unusual for backup systems.
clearly a bug, and it can cause the backups to actually fail.


How about the following proposal[1]:

 * Change updatedb so that it tolerates multiple
     PRUNEFS=
     PRUNEPATHS=
     PRUNENAMES=
   and simply concatenates the lists.

 * Have it additionally read files in /etc/updatedb/updatedb.conf.d
   (or some other similar name), as if their contents had been
   included in the main file.

This does not require a big change to the semantics: just allowing
a single list to be specified over multiple lines.

I think this would be enough to meet nearly everyone's needs,
including those of chiark-backup, rsbackup, and, well, whatever else
people might have.

Failing that, I could a send patch to the default file to include
chiark-backup's path, and maintainers/users of other systems with
similar needs could do the same.  But that isn't very scaleable, which
is why we usually use the .d convention in Debian.

Thanks,
Ian.

[1] My previous suggestion was under the assumption that the file was
a shell script.
#1012619#37
Date:
2022-06-11 12:11:33 UTC
From:
To:
tags 1012619 + wontfix
thanks

If so, that's a bug on chiark-backup.

I do not intend do to put resources into this at the moment.
I would consider patches, assuming they do not cause significant extra
review or long-term maintenance.

/* Steinar */