[Bug 1190696] Re: updatedb.mlocate uses 100% of the hdd IO. The OS is completely unusable.

[Guy]

I just realised I posted the comment below on the old bug threat, so
posting it here as well to be more contemporary!

ps auxw shows me the ionice'd process:
root 6466 0.0 0.0 4328 356 ? S 07:35 0:00 flock --nonblock /run/mlocate.daily.lock /usr/bin/ionice -c3 /usr/bin/updatedb.mlocate

but the problem process, blocking IO is:
root 6467 1.0 0.0 5688 2220 ? D 07:35 1:25 /usr/bin/updatedb.mlocate
It's this that eats nigh on 100% of IO. Is it a subprocess that's spawned and isn't ionice'd?

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1190696

Title:
  updatedb.mlocate uses 100% of the hdd IO.  The OS is completely
  unusable.

Status in “mlocate” package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  updatedb.mlocate uses 100% of the hdd IO.  The OS is completely
  unusable.  This can go on for an hour.  I have been fighting with this
  on 3 separate computers for at least a month.

  A very old related bug:
  https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/findutils/+bug/332790
  That bug was marked as fix released for Hardy.

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.04
  Package: mlocate 0.25-0ubuntu2
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.8.0-23.34-generic 3.8.11
  Uname: Linux 3.8.0-23-generic x86_64
  ApportVersion: 2.9.2-0ubuntu8.1
  Architecture: amd64
  Date: Thu Jun 13 08:11:38 2013
  InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-05-09 (34 days ago)
  InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-GNOME 13.04 "Raring Ringtail" - Release amd64 (20130424)
  MarkForUpload: True
  ProcEnviron:
   TERM=screen
   PATH=(custom, no user)
   XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
   LANG=en_US.UTF-8
   SHELL=/bin/bash
  SourcePackage: mlocate
  UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

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