How to search for files in Xubuntu / XFCE with just Thunar and a Bash script

[lapsey]

The preferred tool for searching is now Catfish. Many thanks go to Kalikiana for coding it.

v0.1 stable is now in the Feisty Universe repository., so it's as simple as `sudo apt-get install catfish`. Newer versions are here.

It searches using several backends like find, (s)locate, doodle, tracker and beagle (whichever are available).

Good thing it is light and fits perfectly on Xfce (see screenshots).

It is best integrated with thunar as a custom action, so I nicked a script from JasonValdron that will do this automatically - download that here

to install it, go to the folder you saved it in and paste the following commands.

chmod +x integrate-catfish.sh ; ./integrate-catfish.sh

dont forget to restart thunar to have it show up


-----------------------------


[SMALL]edit: deleted old solution in case of confusion[/small]

[fridaythe14th]

Cool howto! although I'm too lazy for that. :/

If you like me have switched from ubuntu to xubuntu and just want a search gui fast without any tweaking or scripting:
Install the package "gnome-utils" which includes the mentioned "gnome-search-tool". Then search from Applications -> Accessories -> Search for Files.

The package also includes the dictionary and screenshot utils from ubuntu among others.

[mrazster]

Tried it works perfectly..or almost perfectly.
I didn't have the uca.xml file by some reason..but I created it...and then added the last line..the one with the </actions>.
Didn't show up anything in the context menu...however when adding the search-script it self to Thunar > Edit > Configure Custom actions everything works great.

THNX.

[greenstar]

I didn't have the uca.xml file by some reason..but I created it...and then added the last line..the one with the </actions>.

Ditto.

I followed the instructions exactly and it didn't work.

I had to manually add it to Thunar > Edit > Configure Custom actions. Then I tried to use the search script, but the screenshot below shows that I get a Thunar window at /home/brandon instead of the search dialog as you show.



Any ideas?

Greenstar

[lapsey]

Any ideas?

Sorry about that. I think this is because of missing settings in the Configure Custom Action dialog.

I have bolded the important parts.


--- Thunar ------------------------------
Edit > Configure Custom Actions

Edit or Add a custom action..

In tab 'Basic'..
Name: Search for Files
Description: Search this folder for files
Command: bash ~/.bash-scripts/search-for-files %f
Icon: /usr/share/icons/Tango/scalable/actions/search.svg

In tab 'Appearance Conditions'..
File Pattern: *
Appears if selection contains: Directories
--------------------------------------------------------


This means the custom action only appears if you have selected and right-clicked a directory. When multiple folders are selected, only the first one is searched.


The "Search for Files: Look in Folder" is actually a function:
If no (existing) folder path is passed to the script, it will open a dialogue with which to select the folder to search.
This is so you can launch it independantly of a file manager (but it will still need a file manager to open the location of a found file).

[DirtDawg]

EDIT: If you don't feel like the rigamarol, you can use this quick-n-easy method, but lapsey's script works much better. See two posts down from this if you can't find the uca.xml file mentioned in the HowTo.

I installed the gnome-utils packages with synaptic (about 8MB for me).

Next I opened Thunar (Applications>>FileManager), then opened the command editor (Edit>>Configure Custom Actions) and added a new custom action.

I put the follwing info in the Basic Tab:

Name: Search for Files
Description: Start file search here
Command: gnome-search-tool --path %f
icon: /usr/share/icons/Tango/scalable/actions/search.svg

Then in the appearance Tab I left "File Pattern:" as "*" and left only the "Directories" box checked.

Close Thunar then start it back up. Right click on a folder to search.

[DirtDawg]

Nevermind. There's a better way to do this. See next post.

[DirtDawg]

When I followed the HowTo, I got an error that ~/.config/Thunar/uca.xml did not exist. The missing uca.xml file was located at /etc/xdg/Thunar/uca.xml instead.

If this is the case on your computer as well, use these commands:

 sudo cp /etc/xdg/Thunar/uca.xml /etc/xdg/Thunar/uca.xml.old

then:

 sudo mousepad /etc/xdg/Thunar/uca.xml

and follow the rest of the instructions accordingly.

This trick is totally sweet. Thanks again lapsey!

[LKRaider]

Really great (small) script!

I am currently fiddling with it (I already translated it to my language, pt-BR) and was thinking about adding an option for using slocate instead of find (specially useful if searching on large folders).

I will post here if I can make a patch for that


EDIT: okay, I figured the bash scripting part... I'm just missing a way to include an option checkbox in the zenity dialog :\
(Is that even possible?)

[lapsey]

Really great (small) script!

I am currently fiddling with it (I already translated it to my language, pt-BR) and was thinking about adding an option for using slocate instead of find (specially useful if searching on large folders).

I will post here if I can make a patch for that


EDIT: okay, I figured the bash scripting part... I'm just missing a way to include an option checkbox in the zenity dialog :\
(Is that even possible?)

it would require another dialog, which i think would be one too many.

however.. if: slocate is faster than find and can return the same information as find -printf allows... then slocate should replace find

also, if you want to post the translation I will try to incorporate it using localisation: http://www.tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/localization.html