updatedb disabled?

[Jeff Spaleta]

On 4/16/05, Miloslav Trmac <mitr at volny.cz> wrote:
> No, I think updatedb should stay disabled by default even if the laptop
> problem is solved, at least as long as slocate is a mandatory package in
> the Base comps group.  Most users that run a "desktop" don't use locate, so
> running updatedb is just wasted.

I'd feel more comfortable with turning locate off by default if there
was a desktop oriented search facility available to transition people
into using. From my perspective.. locate is still a useful tool when
trying to help troubleshoot some other users system...even if that
system is a desktop and they don't even know the tool is there yet. 
Are there plans for fc5 to introduce one of the competing desktop
oriented search programs?

But I can live with it turned off, since the initial message
explicitly tells you to go to the conf file and re-enable the
updating.  However.. for people doing upgrades to fc4... you might
want to consider editting the message that appears when the database
is out of sync. I didn't notice the database update was turned off on
my rawhide box until i saw this:
#locate poop
warning: locate: warning: database /var/lib/slocate/slocate.db' is
more than 8 days old

It might be useful to update that message to ask the user to check the
conf file and make sure updating is turned on. Should I file this
suggestion?

> If slocate had to be manually selected for installation, it makes sense
> to enable it by default... but installing the package is a more complicated
> action than enabling updatedb if it is already installed.

Debatable.... is there a sane ui way to include this as a checkbox to
enable as part of firstboot?

-jef