[SOLVED] Command 'locate' not found

[chimak111]

$ locate powerline

Command 'locate' not found, but can be installed with:

sudo apt install mlocate

I'll install mlocate but it's odd that it's missing in my minimal install.

[kubicle]

I recall there was a discussion on the mailing lists about removing mlocate from the default installation, so they probably went ahead with it (which is the sort of idiotic decision Canonical is famous for), but at least you can install it manually.

[chimak111]

I recall there was a discussion on the mailing lists about removing mlocate from the default installation, so they probably went ahead with it (which is the sort of idiotic decision Canonical is famous for), but at least you can install it manually.

Thanks!

Looks like this: https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ub...ay/040685.html

[chimak111]

Hmm...

I don't think the benefit of having locate available by default
justifies the daily disk thrashing / energy usage on every Ubuntu machine
everywhere.

is from this post in the thread with some elaboration here.

[kubicle]

Considering what else the default install does, using a phrase like"daily disk thrashing / energy usage" for a process that commonly runs for less than a second daily seems a bit tendencious.
(I know, there are corner cases where it can be a bit more than that, but I'd say the above is true for like 99% of installs).

[Don B. Cilly]

Considering what else the default install does,

Indeed. Considering it runs update-apt-xapi[an-index] every two shakes and that makes your system crawl [begging for mercy :], running updatedb-mlocat[e] every 12 hours or so, which your system barely notices...

[chimak111]

I'm no fan of apt-xapian-index. I hate it. I don't know what real purpose it serves over apt update. But, AFAICT, it runs just once a day.

Description: maintenance and search tools for a Xapian index of Debian packages
This package provides update-apt-xapian-index, a tool to maintain a Xapian
index of Debian package information in /var/lib/apt-xapian-index, and
axi-cache, a command line search tool that uses the index.
.
axi-cache allows one to search packages very quickly, and it also interfaces
with the shell command line completion in a smart way, providing
context-sensitive keyword and tag suggestions even before the search command
is actually run.
.
update-apt-xapian-index allows plugins to be installed in
/usr/share/apt-xapian-index to index all sorts of extra information, such as
Debtags tags, popcon information, package ratings and anything else that would
fit.
.
The index generated by update-apt-xapian-index is self-documenting, as it
contains an autogenerated README file with information on the index layout and
all the data that can be found in it.

Once upon a time it could be removed cleanly but now it wants to take stuff with it:

$ apt purge -s apt-xapian-index
NOTE: This is only a simulation!
    apt needs root privileges for real execution.
    Keep also in mind that locking is deactivated,
    so don't depend on the relevance to the real current situation!
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following package was automatically installed and is no longer required:
python3-xdg
Use 'apt autoremove' to remove it.
The following packages will be REMOVED:
apt-xapian-index* kubuntu-driver-manager* kubuntu-notification-helper* muon*
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 4 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Purg muon [4:5.8.0-0ubuntu1]
Purg kubuntu-notification-helper [18.04ubuntu1]
Purg kubuntu-driver-manager [15.10ubuntu4]
Purg apt-xapian-index [0.47ubuntu13]
$

Oh, and I also dislike appstream and wish I could renounce it and all its works (to parody something else).

[kubicle]

I'm no fan of apt-xapian-index. I hate it. I don't know what real purpose it serves over apt update.

It creates an index of packages for quicker search within available packages in package managers. I don't have it installed, because I don't need it...I do all of my package management in the cli (using apt, or aptitude in case I need to do some package browsing)...no appstream either

[Don B. Cilly]

I'm no fan of apt-xapian-index. I hate it. I don't know what real purpose it serves over apt update. But, AFAICT, it runs just once a day.

It may be AFAYCT because you don't have a conky monitor staring you in the face all the time
When I was using K18.04, it did nothing but (run all the time).
On neon unstable, it's a lot better. It may also be so on K19.10. But then, neon unstable does not even have unattended-upgrades anywhere...

[chimak111]

It may be AFAYCT because you don't have a conky monitor staring you in the face all the time [ATTACH=CONFIG]8306[/ATTACH]
When I was using K18.04, it did nothing but (run all the time). [ATTACH=CONFIG]8307[/ATTACH]
On neon unstable, it's a lot better. It may also be so on K19.10. But then, neon unstable does not even have unattended-upgrades anywhere...

Since you mention 18.04 and the xapi beast running all the time, I must tell you that I do have a one-liner conky running all the time and visible all the time, not hidden behind windows but visible all the time! Date. three time zones, %CPU and %RAM.

I keep a sharp watch on CPU & RAM.

[chimak111]

BTW, for anyone interested in knowing when the xapi beast last ran, the command is axi-cache info but first a patch has to be applied as described in https://askubuntu.com/a/1049264.

Once that's done,

$ axi-cache info
Main data directory: /var/lib/apt-xapian-index
Update timestamp: /var/lib/apt-xapian-index/update-timestamp (last updated: Fri Sep 27 14:21:48 2019)
Index location: /var/lib/apt-xapian-index/index (pointing to /var/cache/apt-xapian-index/index.2)
Documentation of index contents: /var/lib/apt-xapian-index/README
Documentation of available prefixes: /var/lib/apt-xapian-index/prefixes
Documentation of available values: /var/lib/apt-xapian-index/values
Plugin directory: /usr/share/apt-xapian-index/plugins
Plugin status:
aliases         enabled, up to date (897 days, 16:41:26.735763 older than index)
app-install     disabled
apttags         enabled, needs indexing (1 day, 4:29:30.175993 newer than index)
cataloged_time  enabled, needs indexing (1 day, 4:29:30.175993 newer than index)
debtags         disabled
descriptions    enabled, needs indexing (1 day, 4:29:30.175993 newer than index)
relations       enabled, needs indexing (1 day, 4:29:30.175993 newer than index)
sections        enabled, needs indexing (1 day, 4:29:30.175993 newer than index)
sizes           enabled, needs indexing (1 day, 4:29:30.175993 newer than index)
template        enabled, up to date                                                                                                               
translated-desc disabled                                                                                                                          
Values:                                                                                                                                             
Value         Code Provided by                                                                                                                    
catalogedtime    3 cataloged_time                                                                                                                 
installedsize    1 sizes                                                                                                                          
packagesize      2 sizes                                                                                                                          
version          0 update-apt-xapian-index                                                                                                        
Data sources:                                                                                                                                       
Source                                           Description                                     Used by                                          
/usr/share/apt-xapian-index/aliases/popular-apps Aliases expanding names of popular applications aliases                                          
/var/cache/apt/pkgcache.bin                      APT index                                       apttags, descriptions, relations, sections, sizes
/var/lib/apt-xapian-index/cataloged_times.p      first-seen information for every package        cataloged_time                                   
$

The relevant line is the one beginning with Update timestamp.

[Don B. Cilly]

Since you mention 18.04 and the xapi beast running all the time, I must tell you that I do have a one-liner conky running all the time and visible all the time,

Well, "all the time" had a next to it... but it certainly ran too often for my liking.
And at every boot. I shut down quite often. It's a desktop, I hate wasting electricity, and it takes no time to shut down/boot up.

Still, why not add another line to the conky with a few ${top name 1} - 2,3,4... so you see which processes... you know.

[jglen490]

Mine runs once a week - cron job. Hardly ever bothers anything. It's that way out of the box.

[acheron]

https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/kubuntu-meta/1.387

kubuntu-meta (1.387) eoan; urgency=medium

* Refreshed dependencies
* Added mlocate to desktop-recommends, full-recommends