Description
This is related to the following part of https://community.greenbone.net/t/hint-verify-target-configuration-access-for-authenticated-lsc-scans/219:
locate: Command available (ssh/locate/available)
If this is set to FALSE locate might be not available on the target system:
NOTE: The locate command seems to be unavailable for this user/account/system. This command is highly recommended for authenticated scans to improve the search performance on the target system. Please see the output above for a possible hint / reason why this command is not available.
Background
Making the locate (or alternatively mlocate) command available for the scanning user reduces calls to the find command used to search for files. This lowers the resource usage on the target system (especially in conjunction with network attached storage on the target system) and improves the speed of the scan in various situations.
Note: In addition the database of locate / mlocate should be updated regularly (especially after the installation of new software) via e.g. a cron job calling updatedb or similar.
Example output
An example output of a not working locate command which gives a few information why the call of the command failed:
locate: Response to 'locate -S' command (ssh/locate/broken) : locate: can not stat () `/var/lib/mlocate/mlocate.db': No such file or directory