Linux From Scratch - Version 7.2-rc1

Chapter 6. Installing Basic System Software

6.42. Findutils-4.4.2

The Findutils package contains programs to find files. These programs are provided to recursively search through a directory tree and to create, maintain, and search a database (often faster than the recursive find, but unreliable if the database has not been recently updated).

Approximate build time: 0.4 SBU
Required disk space: 29 MB

6.42.1. Installation of Findutils

Prepare Findutils for compilation: 

./configure --prefix=/usr                   \
            --libexecdir=/usr/lib/findutils \
            --localstatedir=/var/lib/locate

The meaning of the configure options:

--localstatedir

This option changes the location of the locate database to be in /var/lib/locate, which is FHS-compliant.

Compile the package: 

make

To test the results, issue: 

make check

Install the package: 

make install

Some of the scripts in the LFS-Bootscripts package depend on find. As /usr may not be available during the early stages of booting, this program needs to be on the root partition. The updatedb script also needs to be modified to correct an explicit path: 

mv -v /usr/bin/find /bin
sed -i 's/find:=${BINDIR}/find:=\/bin/' /usr/bin/updatedb

6.42.2. Contents of Findutils

Installed programs: bigram, code, find, frcode, locate, oldfind, updatedb, and xargs
Installed directory: /usr/lib/findutils

Short Descriptions

bigram

Was formerly used to produce locate databases

code

Was formerly used to produce locate databases; it is the ancestor of frcode.

find

Searches given directory trees for files matching the specified criteria

frcode

Is called by updatedb to compress the list of file names; it uses front-compression, reducing the database size by a factor of four to five.

locate

Searches through a database of file names and reports the names that contain a given string or match a given pattern

oldfind

Older version of find, using a different algorithm

updatedb

Updates the locate database; it scans the entire file system (including other file systems that are currently mounted, unless told not to) and puts every file name it finds into the database

xargs

Can be used to apply a given command to a list of files