(find.info)Database Formats

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4.2 Database Formats
====================

The file name databases contain lists of files that were in particular
directory trees when the databases were last updated.  The file name
database format changed starting with GNU 'locate' version 4.0 to allow
machines with different byte orderings to share the databases.

   GNU 'locate' can read both the old pre-findutils-4.0 database format
and the 'LOCATE02' database format.  Support for the old database format
will shortly be removed from 'locate'.  It has already been removed from
'updatedb'.

   If you run 'locate --statistics', the resulting summary indicates the
type of each 'locate' database.  You select which database format
'updatedb' will use with the '--dbformat' option.

   The 'slocate' database format is very similar to 'LOCATE02' and is
also supported (in both 'updatedb' and 'locate').

LOCATE02 Database Format

Sample LOCATE02 Database

slocate Database Format

Old Database Format