Question

Lynn runs the locate command and the results include many files from a directory that she doesn't want to include in her search. Which of the following files could Lynn modify so that the locate command no longer includes those results?
a. /etc/locate.d/updatedb.conf
b. /etc/locate.conf
c. /etc/updatedb.conf
d. /etc/locatedb.conf

Answer 1

Answer:

Lynn can modify /etc/updatedb.conf file so that locate command does not include files from a directory that she does not want to include in her search.

Explanation:

/etc/updatedb.conf is a configuration file for updating database. Locate command works fast because it searches for files in a database not in a file system. That Database is updated by a background process that runs on your system and continuously search and upload new files in a database./etc/updatedb.conf is a text file that contains key-value pairs. Key is a defined variable like PRUNENAMES or PRUNEPATHS. Key values other than defined variables give an error. Value can be any character but it should not exceed one line.  

PRUNENAMES is a key that can be initialized by only directory names and no pattern mechanism is used. The update does not scan this list of space-separated directory names when uploading files in a database that’s why the files in a directory never appear in the database.