Searching is one of the most important parts of any works performed in our everyday life. In the case of computers, it’s also important that you can find out your important files and directories without much effort. That’s why it’s important that you keep your files and directories organized. Yet, when you’re working on a big storage and your storage is full of other important files, it’s hard to find out the right one.

Generally, all the file browsers come up with a built-in search function that can do the job pretty good. However, for those who are not satisfied with the function or depend on searching files heavily, using a dedicated file searcher is really efficient. Today, we’ll be using Fsearch – a blazingly fast searching utility for Linux.

How Fsearch works

Fsearch, like most other searching apps that build a database of all the files in the system. Now, whenever you search for a file(s) or directory(s), the app actually searches within the previously created database, thus faster result. A fun fact – an open, online database busted a serious crime in the history of money laundering. Learn more about the good-guy MongoDB database that did the job.

Searching utilities also help to keep things organized. Fsearch can be very useful for just anyone.

Installing Fsearch

It’s time to install this awesome app on our Linux system. Run the following command(s) according to your own distro.

• Ubuntu

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:christian-boxdoerfer/fsearch-daily

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y && sudo apt install fsearch -y

• Debian

sudo apt-get install git build-essential automake autoconf libtool pkg-config intltool autoconf-archive libpcre3-dev libglib2.0-dev libgtk-3-dev libxml2-utils
git clone https://github.com/cboxdoerfer/fsearch.git
cd fsearch

./autogen.sh
./configure

make
sudo make install

• Fedora

# Install building essentials
sudo dnf install automake autoconf intltool libtool autoconf-archive pkgconfig glib2-devel gtk3-devel git

# Build and install the program
git clone https://github.com/cboxdoerfer/fsearch.git
cd fsearch

./autogen.sh
./configure
make
sudo make install

• OpenSUSE

Go to this link for installing in OpenSUSE.

• Arch Linux

sudo pacman -S git
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/fsearch-git.git
cd fsearch-git

# Get all the dependencies first here - https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/fsearch-git/

makepkg -si

Configuring Fsearch

When the installation is complete, it’s time to configure the app before you can use it on a regular basis. It has to generate the database so that it can give you the blazingly fast performance.

Start the program.

Now, as you can see, the app doesn’t have the database. Follow the instructions and update the database from “Edit” tab >> Preferences >> Database.

Here, you have to add the directory paths where you want to search. I’m adding my “home” directory in the database. Tick the box saying “Update database on start”.

Hit “OK” and wait for the database creation process to complete. Once complete, the program will ask for any query.

Using Fsearch

Fsearch can also work as a mini file manager for you. You can perform a number of actions directly from the app.

For searching, start typing the name of the file and the app will show every single query matching with the term.

You can also perform different actions from the right-click menu.