4 ms·

for executables, use which <name> for everything else, use mlocate sudo updatedb locate <name> I don't see how that's hard at all.

pvaldes 11y ago
> use wich <name> or the even easier to remember 'whereis <name>'
ryfm 11y ago
I recently started playing with lisp in ubuntu and decided to go with slime for it. So i installed slime through ubuntu software manager, couldn't find it, couldn't start it (i'm totally new to emacs and slime). After that I read some manuals, made changes to .emacs config and eventually installed slime using emacs and its package manager. Now i'm wondering if i have 2 versions of slime where are they located, which one is being actually used etc.
Avshalom 11y ago
Why should anyone need to have admin privileges to find a file?
- fnordfnordfnord 11y ago
  Because updatedb needs to look at your system's private parts. Try find /. | grep [string] which will look everywhere for [string]
- adrusi 11y ago
  From the updatedb manpage: updatedb is usually run daily by cron(8) to update the default database. Also: To create a private mlocate database as an user other than root, run updatedb -l 0 -o db_file -U source_directory Note that all users that can read db_file can get the complete list of files in the subtree of source_directory.
mercurial 11y ago
On the other hand, "what's the point of this apparently pointless complexity?" is a very good question.
- qwertyuiop924 11y ago
  That's my point. On linux, there really is no distinction between /bin and /usr/bin. /usr/local/bin is different, as it's the designated location for stuff you install from source. /sbin is also different, because that's where you want your recovery tools. Although usually you'll boot into a livecd for recovery these days, so it's kind of moot. Again, this about the only thing that systemd, fdo, etc. and I agree on.
  - digi_owl 11y ago
    > Although usually you'll boot into a livecd for recovery these days, so it's kind of moot. thats taking a very "desktop" view on things. Many more systems run as headless installs in some rack somewhere.
    - qwertyuiop924 11y ago
      Good point, actually. Sorry. I'm not a professional, so I've got less experience with that.

pvaldes 11y ago

> use wich <name> or the even easier to remember 'whereis <name>'

ryfm 11y ago

I recently started playing with lisp in ubuntu and decided to go with slime for it. So i installed slime through ubuntu software manager, couldn't find it, couldn't start it (i'm totally new to emacs and slime). After that I read some manuals, made changes to .emacs config and eventually installed slime using emacs and its package manager. Now i'm wondering if i have 2 versions of slime where are they located, which one is being actually used etc.

Avshalom 11y ago

Why should anyone need to have admin privileges to find a file?

fnordfnordfnord 11y ago
Because updatedb needs to look at your system's private parts. Try find /. | grep [string] which will look everywhere for [string]
adrusi 11y ago
From the updatedb manpage: updatedb is usually run daily by cron(8) to update the default database. Also: To create a private mlocate database as an user other than root, run updatedb -l 0 -o db_file -U source_directory Note that all users that can read db_file can get the complete list of files in the subtree of source_directory.

mercurial 11y ago

On the other hand, "what's the point of this apparently pointless complexity?" is a very good question.

qwertyuiop924 11y ago
That's my point. On linux, there really is no distinction between /bin and /usr/bin. /usr/local/bin is different, as it's the designated location for stuff you install from source. /sbin is also different, because that's where you want your recovery tools. Although usually you'll boot into a livecd for recovery these days, so it's kind of moot. Again, this about the only thing that systemd, fdo, etc. and I agree on.
- digi_owl 11y ago
  > Although usually you'll boot into a livecd for recovery these days, so it's kind of moot. thats taking a very "desktop" view on things. Many more systems run as headless installs in some rack somewhere.
  - qwertyuiop924 11y ago
    Good point, actually. Sorry. I'm not a professional, so I've got less experience with that.