Re: No Locate for User

Peter
2005-04-25T08:11:31Z

On Sun, 24 Apr 2005 22:06:04 -0700
Ray Olszewski <ray@comarre.com> wrote:

> Peter H. wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > Slackware 10.1 kernel 2.4.29
> >
> > I upgraded again Dropline Gnome from 2.8.3 to 2.10 this time with no
problems
> > regarding certain programs like gxine not opening.
> >
> > However, I cannot use the command "locate" as a user any longer. I get the

> > following error:
> >
> > @~:$ locate fips
> > warning: locate: could not open database: /var/lib/slocate/slocate.db:
> > Permission denied
> >
> > As su there is no problem.
> >
> > I did not do anything to this file in fact it has the same permissions as
in
> > my Fedora box where a user can do "locate" w/o problem just like before
the
> > upgrade in slack. Updateddb is done daily by cron root.
> >
> > :# ls -l /var/lib/slocate
> > total 4176
> > -rw-r----- 1 root slocate 4275159 2005-04-24 18:06 slocate.db
> >
> > How to resolve?

>
> I don't know why ... that is, how ... your Fedora host works with these
> permissions, but I'm not surprised that your Slackware host presents
> problems with them. On Debian, the corresponding file (in a different
> location, but the functional equivalent) is mode 644, the mode you'd
> expect for a file that is to be readable by all users:
>
> ray@kuryakin:~$ ls -l /var/cache/locate/locatedb
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1089123 Apr 24 06:25 /var/cache/locate/locatedb
>
> So try changing the mode to 644 with chmod. Or try adding all users who
> need to use locate to the group slocate (in /etc/group ... perhaps
> Fedora uses this trick to make locate work in mode 640?).
>

Since I am using Linux beginning with ReaHat 5.1 then later switching to
slackware I always used "locate" as user and never bothered to look at the
permission of /var/lib/slocate since there was obviously no need.

Before I posted this mail I tried various permission for slocate even my user
name as owner and get the same error: Permission denied.

That's why I am at a loss. I checked the dropline forum and could not find a
reference. Might have to post one.

Regards