Hi there, everyone! I am on a quest to find THE MOST NEWBIE-FRIENDLY way to search BY CONTENT the files of the following types: .txt, .doc., .pdf, .odf, .html
So far, my solution is Recoll with "helpers" installed - definitely does the job, but the installation and running of it is not very newbie friendly.
Tried Catfish - can only search the content of .txt files. Same in Mate-search-tool someone recommended.
I need to find a solution for not-so-tech-minded colleagues in the office switching from Windows to Linux.
They miss the easy search in the Windows Explorer...
Any suggestions?
(Using Linux Mint 18 and Ubuntu 18)
best app to search for files by content
Forum rules
There are no such things as "stupid" questions. However if you think your question is a bit stupid, then this is the right place for you to post it. Stick to easy to-the-point questions that you feel people can answer fast. For long and complicated questions use the other forums in the support section.
Before you post read how to get help. Topics in this forum are automatically closed 6 months after creation.
There are no such things as "stupid" questions. However if you think your question is a bit stupid, then this is the right place for you to post it. Stick to easy to-the-point questions that you feel people can answer fast. For long and complicated questions use the other forums in the support section.
Before you post read how to get help. Topics in this forum are automatically closed 6 months after creation.
-
otlichnik73
- Level 3
- Posts: 128
- Joined: Tue Mar 20, 2018 6:20 pm
best app to search for files by content
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
First Port of Call for Windows Refugees: https://switchtolinuxdesktop.wordpress.com/
Re: best app to search for files by content
I'm not the best to answer this as I just use grep from the terminal (or actually ripgrep, which is 20 times faster). Recoll and Catfish are the obvious ones to try if you need something with a GUI. A look on https://alternativeto.net/ comes up with two other options: DocFetcher and Searchmonkey. The latter you can install through Software Manager. DocFetcher you'll need to download it yourself from http://docfetcher.sourceforge.net/. It's written in Java but Linux Mint should come with a JRE already installed so you shouldn't need to do anything special with regards to it being Java.
-
catweazel
- Level 19
- Posts: 9763
- Joined: Fri Oct 12, 2012 9:44 pm
- Location: Australian Antarctic Territory
Re: best app to search for files by content
"There is, ultimately, only one truth -- cogito, ergo sum -- everything else is an assumption." - Me, my swansong.
Re: best app to search for files by content
+1 catfish
For deeper file search such as word search within files I suggest 'recoll' from the repositories which indexes everthing.
I am also using fsearch (not a repository item) which indexes just filenames. Both lightning fast
For deeper file search such as word search within files I suggest 'recoll' from the repositories which indexes everthing.
I am also using fsearch (not a repository item) which indexes just filenames. Both lightning fast
Everything in life was difficult before it became easy.
Re: best app to search for files by content
Erm, folks 
otlichnik73 wrote: ⤴Sat Oct 20, 2018 5:41 pmTried Catfish - can only search the content of .txt files. Same in Mate-search-tool someone recommended.
-
smurphos
- Level 18
- Posts: 8498
- Joined: Fri Sep 05, 2014 12:18 am
- Location: Irish Brit in Portugal
- Contact:
Re: best app to search for files by content
Searchmonkey is also plain text file only for search by contents.
Recoll was the only one I was aware of freely available as opensource software that can handle search by file contents in pdf, ms formats, odt, archives etc. Will have to give Docfetcher a look - it supports non plain text file-types looking at the site.
Agree the Recoll set-up is not newbie friendly - maybe a nice little post-install script is needed to pull in the optional dependencies and apply a sensible set of default settings.
Recoll was the only one I was aware of freely available as opensource software that can handle search by file contents in pdf, ms formats, odt, archives etc. Will have to give Docfetcher a look - it supports non plain text file-types looking at the site.
Agree the Recoll set-up is not newbie friendly - maybe a nice little post-install script is needed to pull in the optional dependencies and apply a sensible set of default settings.
For custom Nemo actions, useful scripts for the Cinnamon desktop, and Cinnamox themes visit my Github pages.
-
otlichnik73
- Level 3
- Posts: 128
- Joined: Tue Mar 20, 2018 6:20 pm
Re: best app to search for files by content
YES!! Docfetcher is the winner!! Installation is a bit tedious, must install Runtime Java, then install from a .zip archive. It does not add itself to applications menu, you have to launch it from a .sh file, and the help menu is hidden in the folder in the archive. But, once you sort it all out -smurphos wrote: ⤴Sat Oct 20, 2018 11:47 pm Searchmonkey is also plain text file only for search by contents.
Recoll was the only one I was aware of freely available as opensource software that can handle search by file contents in pdf, ms formats, odt, archives etc. Will have to give Docfetcher a look - it supports non plain text file-types looking at the site.
Agree the Recoll set-up is not newbie friendly - maybe a nice little post-install script is needed to pull in the optional dependencies and apply a sensible set of default settings.
you don't have to worry about installing any "helpers" as with Recoll, it searches ALL formats
website: http://docfetcher.sourceforge.net/en/download.html
how to install java: https://www.pcsteps.com/5492-how-to-ins ... nt-ubuntu/
First Port of Call for Windows Refugees: https://switchtolinuxdesktop.wordpress.com/