File System Search

Jeff Pitman symbiont at berlios.de
Fri Nov 5 08:28:39 UTC 2004


In connection with the Google Desktop Search frenzy and a small 
contingent asking for a Linux port, I began a small search of already 
available stuff on Linux and bumped into an interesting project that 
hasn't been discussed here, yet. (Not to be confused with this:
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2003-August/msg00100.html )

URL: fsdb.sf.net (No longer active; just wanted to discuss 
possibilities).

The gist of it is to create a fresher slocate database by using a hook 
in the kernel to get fs updates and store them in an intermediate 
format.  Then, instead of a daily update, you can setup fsdb to run 
hourly and it uses a lot less CPU to boot.  And the updates only take 
seconds, instead of the long annoyingly slow "updatedb".

I know this only provides name searching not the full gambit that GDS 
provides.  But, it could be a start to improve things a bit more.  

For example, Konqueror has "Use files index", although it's pretty 
buggy, which would be more useful if the DB was more up-to-date.  It'd 
be nice to bring a standard DB (with content search) in under the 
umbrella of freedesktop.org, but that's off-topic here.

What other tools have you seen out there?

Discuss away!

-- 
-jeff




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