Bug#354384: locate: "more than 8 days old" message hardwired?

[Dan Jacobson]

Package: findutils
Version: 4.2.26-2
Severity: wishlist
File: /usr/bin/locate

Got an idea, instead of saying
"locate: warning: database `/var/cache/locate/locatedb' is more than 8 days old"
why not also, since you know it, tell us how many days old it in fact is!
That way, the system administrator can tell if his custom cronjob is
OK, or has been dead since 1973.

Anyway, in /etc/updatedb.conf I put:
#quit if database is less that 15.5 days old to save disk wear
min=`expr 60 \* 24 \* 155 / 10`
a=/var/cache/locate/locatedb
test -s $a && test x$a = x`find $a -mmin -$min` && exit

So of course half the time I will see those "more than 8 days old"
messages. That's because somebody hardwired that 8 somewhere, making a
value judgement unchangeable by even a Debian system administrator.

Anyway, if there is no run-time way to adjust the presence of those
messages, at least they could be more informative.