What is the difference in Mint between locate & plocate ?

[vale girder]

Both are installed by default and it seems that both use the same database and look to have the same performances.
In fact my question is when we launch a locate, is it a plocate ?

[burnt sphinx]

p

[vale girder]

p ? 🤔

[grim wasp]

As I understand it, plocate is a more modern version of locate, although both are present in mint for compatability

[vale girder]

Indeed

I found the answer I think 😀

both man locate and man plocate display the same manual of plocate
So, I was right, when we launch locate we actually launch plocate for Mint.
We just no longer use locate for Mint but plocateand it explains why the database is the same and performances are similar.

Thank you

What is the difference in Mint between locate & plocate ? [SOLVED]

[grim wasp]

Indeed, you can use

which locate

to see where the executable file is, and then use

type /usr/bin/locate

to see if it's actual executable or simlink. If you follow the link's trail you'll end up at plocate

[vale girder]

In fact with ls -hl /usr/bin/locate we can see than it is a link
And is a link to /etc/alternatives/locate where plocate is the only option by default

[grim wasp]

Yep,

ls -lha /etc/alternatives/locate

goes to plocate