Arch Linux

raginaot

Member

Registered: 2010-11-22

Posts: 53

Indexing and searching files on linux

I have been using this program called Everything on Windows.
Which is the most awesome desktop search program I have ever encountered btw. It's just clean, simple and efficient

I can never remember where any of my files are so I really need something similar for linux.
You guys know of anything like this?

thestinger

Package Maintainer (PM)

From: Toronto, Canada

Registered: 2010-01-23

Posts: 478

Re: Indexing and searching files on linux

If you just want to search using filenames, there's nothing wrong with locate and find.

If you want to search using metadata from files, content in the files, etc. then you'll have to use something like tracker, strigi or beagle.

Last edited by thestinger (2010-11-23 23:29:44)

raginaot

Member

Registered: 2010-11-22

Posts: 53

Re: Indexing and searching files on linux

If you just want to search using filenames, there's nothing wrong with locate and find.

If you want to search using metadata from files, content in the files, etc. then you'll have to use something like tracker, strigi or beagle.

find is fine if you don't have many files or know approximately where the file you're looking for is located, but when searching through 3TB of stuff with a partial filename it's gonna slow since there's no search index.
Also it would be better if I had a simple gui.

There's mainly 2 things I like about Everything and would like to find a linux search program that works in a similar way

-Search index, that is built extremely fast. Also it monitors changes and adds/removes from the index on the fly. (search results appear instantly because of this)

-It searches in a similar way like when you're searching the media library in most music players (e.g. itunes, rhythmbox, foobar). It starts by showing every file and folder on the computer then narrows down the results with each letter you type.

thestinger

Package Maintainer (PM)

From: Toronto, Canada

Registered: 2010-01-23

Posts: 478

Re: Indexing and searching files on linux

Try out tracker if you use GNOME or strigi if you use KDE, I think they are exactly what you want. If you don't use either of those DEs, just pick the one you like best.

Last edited by thestinger (2010-11-24 03:04:08)

3])

Member

From: Netherlands

Registered: 2009-10-12

Posts: 215

Re: Indexing and searching files on linux

I know it might sound tedious, but 'locate' and 'grep' do the job for me.

However, I do have search-monkey in case I feel lazy!

I do not want to deal with the hassle of having a service continuous running in the background, bad for the performance and adds meat to my lean mean machine.

Last edited by 3]) (2010-11-24 14:39:26)

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Cyrusm

Member

From: Bozeman, MT

Registered: 2007-11-15

Posts: 1,053

Re: Indexing and searching files on linux

I still just use a combination of locate, grep, whereis, and a well organized/maintained file structure. I have updatedb run twice daily by cron so that current locations are up to date.  but mostly, I just know where I put all my files.

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Simplet

Member

Registered: 2010-12-02

Posts: 18

Re: Indexing and searching files on linux

locate + grep here.
I run updatedb in a cron job daily so I'm always up to date.

If I know where to search find is a good choice too.

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metre

Member

Registered: 2011-03-13

Posts: 130

Re: Indexing and searching files on linux

*deleted*

Last edited by metre (2011-05-07 11:56:18)

pataphysician

Member

Registered: 2010-09-04

Posts: 46

Re: Indexing and searching files on linux

everthing for windows is pretty much the same as locate, as everything only does filenames, it's not a semantic indexer(like Beagle, Tracker or Strigi). So just use locate and updatedb to update the index, you can either do this with a cron job to run updatedb periodically, or you can install rlocate which is just like locate except it updates the index anytime there is an addition to the file system, which is the way everything works. There is also mlocate which is like the default slocate but it merges the index instead of reindexing with updatedb.

Last edited by pataphysician (2011-05-08 17:39:59)

student975

Member

From: Russian Federation

Registered: 2011-03-05

Posts: 613

Re: Indexing and searching files on linux

http://www.lesbonscomptes.com/recoll/

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