A new version of the super-fast file finding Linux app FSearch is now available to download.

I’ve written about FSearch a few times in the past. I love its robust feature set and heroic ability to help me find just about anything I ask of it, regardless of the ancient, forgotten directory I left it in! Heck, it the closest thing to an ‘Everything Search Engine’ app for Linux there is (well, in my opinion).

Anyway, I’m not here to introduce you to the app — it’s a GUI search utility, it does what it says — rather relay word that an updated version is available to download/upgrade to.

And as updates go, it’s a pretty big one.

FSearch 0.2’s Improved Search Engine

screenshot of FSearch 0.2 making a search query
Find even more things, fast

FSearch 0.2 is the first feature release this year, and boy does it deliver!

At the heart of FSearch is its search engine, and for FSearch 0.2 this component is “greatly improved”.

You can now search for entries based on relative size, modification date, folder depth, file extension, content type, number of children (no, not those ones), and more — this is in addition to everything you could search for before.

Plus, we can now use OR and NOT in search queries (blank spaces were already treated like AND). This is a serious power up, as FSearch developers Christian Boxdörfer shows in this example:

To find all all JPG and PNG files modified within the last month that have mum or dad in the file name, you would run the following updated search syntax in FSearch 0.2’s search box: (mum OR dad) ext:jpg;png dm:lastmonth.

Remember: FSearch returns results pretty much as soon as you start typing, so you may even need to finish completing a search query for it to find what you need!

Keeping with this vein of improvement, it’s now possible to modify existing filters and create new filters in FSearch 0.2. If you find yourself rifling through a specific folder or drive you can create a new filter from the Preferences > Search > Filter pane specifying the path, then quickly apply it to future searches from the filter menu beside the search box.

Other changes in FSearch 0.2:

  • Abort slow queries/sorting
  • New filter: desktop apps
  • Option to launch desktop applications (.desktop files)
  • Show desktop application icons for .desktop files
  • Option to exit FSearch when ESC is pressed
  • Scroll results list when selecting files with rubber band
  • Invert selection with rubber band by pressing Ctrl 
  • Open with menu only shows applications which support all selected files
  • Exclude /proc and /sys by default

Of note, the FSearch Snap app is no longer supported. There are details on the FSearch Github but, to condense it, the packaging format “limits the functionality and usefulness of FSearch”. Some apps that need to escape their sandboxed can get a pass to do so (you can run --classic when installing) but this was, alas, denied to FSearch.

Still, the best way to install FSearch on Ubuntu is to make use of the official PPA. Even when the Snap was active this was the route I used. 

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

Followed by:

sudo apt install fsearch

Using a non-Ubuntu based distro? You may find FSearch available in the native repos, or you can install it from the AUR if you’re on Manjaro, EndeavourOS etc.

App Updates fsearch linux utilities PPAs