File searching

[mattrixx]

I am a windows user trying to switch to and understand linux. In windows there is a search function where I can type in a file name and then find the exact folder location on the system. How can I do that in Celena?

thanks,

Matt

[Husse]

There are two basic methods, both from the terminal and both much faster than in windows.
This is one method

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Find all files in the /home partition that begin with the name "Husse...." and print all positive hits:
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find /home -name Husse* -print

note that here husse and Husse are not the same
The method I prefer is to use locate
First update locate's database

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sudo updatedb

This is only necessary the first time and then if you want to search for "new" files
Then

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[code]locate -i your_searchstring[/code]

The -i makes it case insensitive
It looks for every file with your_searchstring in it - i.e. it has wildcards on each side
Very fast
You may get a very large number of hits
Then

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locate -i your_searchstring | less

helps (or you could actually use more)
The | is a vertical line which is found on various locations on your keyboard depending on the layout

[mattrixx]

Great, thanks Husse

So, I take it there is NO Mint Celena provided "GUI" to accomplish this,
but rather a search of this kind must be done in console mode?

I`m specifically interested in finding out just exactly *where* a Program
(and associated files) that I have downloaded and installed
(using Synaptic Package Management) actually ends up being physically located on the system.

Thanks again,
Matt

[scorp123]

(and associated files) that I have downloaded and installed (using Synaptic Package Management) actually ends up being physically located on the system.

Well, if that is all you want then why not ask 'dpkg' (Synaptic is just a front-end to 'apt' and 'dpkg'...)?

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dpkg -L NameOfPackage

Example: dpkg -L fortune-mod ... gives:

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/.
/usr
/usr/games
/usr/games/fortune
/usr/bin
/usr/bin/strfile
/usr/bin/unstr
/usr/share
/usr/share/man
/usr/share/man/man6
/usr/share/man/man6/fortune.6.gz
/usr/share/man/man1
/usr/share/man/man1/strfile.1.gz
/usr/share/doc
/usr/share/doc/fortune-mod
/usr/share/doc/fortune-mod/README.Debian
/usr/share/doc/fortune-mod/copyright
/usr/share/doc/fortune-mod/changelog.gz
/usr/share/doc/fortune-mod/README.gz
/usr/share/doc/fortune-mod/changelog.Debian.gz
/usr/share/menu
/usr/share/menu/fortune-mod
/usr/share/man/man1/unstr.1.gz

Besides: You usually don't even need to know *where* a program is. You just type its name into a shell and Linux should find it right away, regardless where exactly it was installed. Most stuff (but not everything) ends up in /usr/bin anyway ....

And even if you don't remember the name of the package anymore ... ask the apropos command. Let's suppose you forgot the exact name of the package ... but you remember it had something to do with music ... So let's ask 'apropos' about this topic!

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apropos music

... Gives:

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rhythmbox (1)        - music player and library for tagged files using GStreamer
SDL::Music (3pm)     - a perl extension
sonata (1)           - GTK+ client for the Music Player Daemon

The column on the left shows the name of the package (which you would need as argument for the above 'dpkg' command). The number in the brackets shows in which chapter the manual can be found (e.g. man 1 sonata will give you sonata's manual ...) Not happy with the results? Try a different search then:

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apropos mp3

... gives:

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lame (1)             - create mp3 audio files
mp3-decoder (1)      - Free clone of mpg123, a command-line mp3 player
mpg123 (1)           - Free clone of mpg123, a command-line mp3 player
mpg321 (1)           - Free clone of mpg123, a command-line mp3 player
streamripper (1)     - rip shoutcast radio streams to mp3 files
tagmp3 (1)           - manipulate ID3v1 tags

Usually the combo with 'apropos' and 'dpkg' are waaaaaay faster than searching your entire system via 'find' or similar commands. Of course: 'dpkg' will only work if you installed your program via 'apt' or its GUI-frontend 'Synaptic' ... it has no knowledge about programs that you manually installed via other methods.

BTW, all of the above (finding a package, listing its contents ...) can also be done in Synaptic if you're more comfortable with a GUI.

[mattrixx]

Great, this is exactly what I wanted to know Thanks, scorp123

I will definetly print this out and keep /use for a handy reference!

Thanks,
Matt