Using locate, updatedb, mlocate and plocate on Linux with encrypted home directory
I love using " locate " command on Linux. Finding files in a blink of an eye. Combining with " updatedb " it works amazingly fast. I discovered that if your home directory is encrypted (or other directories are encrypted), by default locate command will not find anything in those directories. The better solution is to build a local indexed database of your files: updatedb -l 0 -o ~/.my_locate.db -U $HOME And then using this database to search for files: locate -d ~/.my_locate.db "part file name" You may also want to edit: cat /etc/updatedb.conf And look at disregarded directories and filesystems: PRUNEPATHS, PRUNEFS