Public bug reported: Binary package hint: mlocate
The mlocate cron job (/etc/cron.daily/mlocate) doesn't always respect its lockfile. The cron job always removes the lockfile, even if it aborts because the lockfile already exists. The result is that every other concurrent invocation of /etc/cron.daily/mlocate will run updatedb. The bug is pretty obvious. From /etc/cron.daily/mlocate: ----- trap "rm -f $LOCKFILE" EXIT if [ -e "$LOCKFILE" ]; then echo >&2 "Warning: $LOCKFILE present, not running updatedb." exit 1 else touch "$LOCKFILE" fi ----- The trap to remove the lockfile is turned on before checking for the existence of the lockfile. So even if the lockfile exists, we rm it on exit. Moving the trap inside the else block should fix it. # lsb_release -rd Description: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Release: 10.04 # apt-cache policy mlocate mlocate: Installed: 0.22.2-1ubuntu1 Candidate: 0.22.2-1ubuntu1 ** Affects: mlocate (Ubuntu) Importance: Undecided Status: New -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/731632 Title: mlocate cron job doesn't respect its lockfile -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs