Re: (slightly OT?) Disk usage of find

On 2026-05-16, [email protected] wrote:
> I tend to avoid the use of find (1) because I never really "internalized" the syntax) and (2) on the assumption that it hits the disk "harder" than locate.
>
> I mean, updatedb runs once a day (on my systems) and I assume (I know) that its database is mostly cached somewhere, but I don't really know how it finds new files.
>
> Is there any validity to the idea that find is harder on disks (hits them more often / more widely) than locate?

When at my computer, I prefer to wait less.

I do not run performance-sensitive workloads around the time /usr/lib/systemd/plocate-updatedb.timer runs (i.e.: during the night), so I am trading that disk access, done when I don't notice it, for responsiveness.

For efficiency, you'd probably want to fine-tune indexing exclusion rules in /etc/updatedb.conf (avoiding work you won't use), and scheduling.

Marco Ippolito
[email protected]