Good file search program?

[Red Squirrel]

The file search in Mint sucks, it just dumps a bunch of icons on the screen without telling you the full path. You can change it, but then its global for everything even regular file browsing.

I am currently using an app called Recoll, but the problem is, it only works when it wants. I don't think the index tool is working or even running. So I'm open to something else that will work better.

I used to use a tool in windows called Launchy. Is there something similar for Linux? I use this mostly for code so I can quickly pull up a file instead of having to be browsing all over the place manually finding files when working in large programs.

Idealy it would even be nice to have a program that has different search profiles so I can set a profile for each program I'm working on, and have a general global profile for documents and what not.

Even thinking of just writing my own if there's nothing good that will do this.

 

[mv2devnull]

What is "file search"?

find ?

grep -r ?

slocate ?

 

[Red Squirrel]

Looking for something GUI, so I can just click the file and have it open in whatever program that type of file normally opens with.

 

[Essence_of_War]

Are you describing something like OS X's spotlight?

 

[Red Squirrel]

Never used OS X, so not sure. I don't want it to be cloud based though, I want it to be 100% local. I know a lot of these tools now days are cloud based. I want it to only search locally and keep the index locally. Heck, even if it just uses find internally and the searches take a bit of time, that's acceptable, I just want a clean GUI so I can pop up a search bar, type a file name, get a list of results then click it and the file opens. Need to be able to restrict the folders too. Ex: for my code I tend to only include specific projects that I'm actively working on and only the dev environment.

Just for fun I looked on Lanchy's website and it looks like they have a Linux version now... I might give that a try.

http://www.launchy.net/download.php

 

[Essence_of_War]

I don't really understand what you mean by:

I don't want it to be cloud based though, I want it to be 100% local. I know a lot of these tools now days are cloud based.

Are you just saying you don't want it to search the internet also?

For reference, here is what spotlight looks like:

http://blog.laptopmag.com/wpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/OS-X-Spotlight-How-To.jpg
http://media.idownloadblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/OS-X-Yosemite-Spotlight.jpg

Does that look like what you're talking about?

 

[Red Squirrel]

I just wanted to specify, because I know some of these apps search the internet and have other stuff that relies on the internet to work or otherwise transmits what you search to some server somewhere. I just want it to search files. Basically if I have some file that's 20 levels deep in a folder I want to be able to just type the name and get a list of what matches (and showing the full path) instead of having to manually go to it each time.

 

[ninaholic37]

Ex: for my code I tend to only include specific projects that I'm actively working on and only the dev environment.

If you're working on code, the IDE should have an option to search for a word/string in all files too. I know I can do this with Dev C++ 5.9.2.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Wanted something more general purpose, I use it to pull up documentation/reference etc too. I ended up installing Launchy and so far so good! It works just as well as it did back when I was on Windows. I had no idea they had a Linux version now. Think I'm even going to donate to the project.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Well turns out this app does not work either. It opens the text editor in a new window instead of a new tab. What a freaking pain in the ass. Why is this so hard? I just want a search app that can search for specific file extensions in specific folders and open them the same way as if I opened them directly in "explorer". The text editor I use is Pluma.

Really what would be nice is a better "explorer" that has a file search built in, something better than the current search that just plops a bunch of icons without even telling you or giving you a way to get to the actual path. Is there such a thing? Basically a better file manager with more features.