As it says in the description. I first check our database is up to date
bin $ sudo /usr/libexec/locate.updatedb
Password: #password entered and function executed without errors
I then try and search for something inside my Documents folder
bin $ cd ~/Documents/
Documents $ ls
Mamp_workspace/ Scenarios.docx gc01/
Documents $ locate Scenarios.docx #nothing returned
I then try another random folder:
Documents $ cd ..
~ $ ls
Applications/ Movies/ drawable/ untitled-2.pdf
Desktop/ Music/ drawable-xhdpi/ untitled-2.synctex.gz
Documents/ Pictures/ dwhelper/ untitled-2.tex
Downloads/ Public/ linux_ssh* website-terminal-copy-paste
Dropbox/ Samsung/ scripts/ workspace/
Google Drive/ Sites/ untitled-2.aux workspace_copy_to_linux*
Library/ android-sdks/ untitled-2.log
~ $ locate website-terminal-copy-paste
/Users/crashandburn4/website-terminal-copy-paste #correct result returned
can anyone help me? I've been stuck on this for a good half hour or so.
As pointed out by plundra, that's because the locate OSX ships with is old and crippled and doesn't index and/or report files which are not readable by nobody, even when run as root. What you can do though is either install homebrew and then GNU locate, or, as suggested here use mdfind -name instead (I don't have an OSX box at hand to test this).