Everything file search for Windows is wonderful - instant search as you type for filenames.
There are a few similar projects for Linux. https://old.reddit.com/r/software/comments/t5n3cm/everything_for_linux/
My big complaint with these is that they're way too complicated. They weren't in my package repos and I didn't want to deal with setting up the tools to build them from source. I wanted to demonstrate that you could make this functionality easily in a short script with only tools you probably already have installed. This whole project was written in about 30 minutes.
It is a theoretically less efficient tool than the properly engineered ones listed in that thread. But for 99% of users it doesn't matter, this will still feel instant.
Depedencies
- Python
- Ripgrep
git clone https://github.com/omc8db/dumbsearch.git
cd dumbsearch
./install.sh
Optionally add a desktop launcher or a keyboard shortcut if you want.
Q: Is this literally just dumping a list of every filename in my system into a text file and running ripgrep on it?
A: Yes.
Q: But isn't using a real data structure and incremental search more efficient?
A: That's actually not guaranteed on modern hardware. Searching a continuous block of memory is very friendly to CPU cache, the branch predictor and vectorization. Pointer chasing around a data structure is not. Subjectively this program has felt faster than any other search tool on every machine I've tested it on.
Q: Why did you use ugly old TK instead of a modern framework like QT / GTK / Electron?
A: They're not in the standard library and they're not happening in 100 lines of python.
Q: Is this a good tool?
A: It's an effective tool.