locate is a command I’ve used in the past, but now, fresh installed with sudo apt get locate it doesn return anything.

locate --version returns locate (GNU findutils) 4.10.0, from 2024

or, have I forgotten something?

  • gnuhaut@lemmy.ml
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    1 day ago

    I guess because that adds extra complexity that isn’t inherently necessary and can be added on top, plus it eats resources. You’ll spend the cycles either way basically, at least this way it’s optional. I don’t bother with a file indexer because with SSDs nowadays, find is pretty fast, and how often do you search for files anyway?

    Linux has APIs to get notified on file system events (fanotify, inotify) which would allow such a service to update itself whenever files are created/delete immediately, but locate is way older than that, from the 80s. I think popular DEs have something like that.

    There’s also ways to search for specific files that come with packages (e.g. dpkg -S), because the package manager already maintains an index of files that were installed by it, so you can use that for most stuff outside /home.

    • interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml
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      1 day ago

      I search for files dozens of times per day, it’s largely how I navigate between folders.
      And often advanced searches like only this root folder, in reverse order of accessed time, or only folder
      On windows I use void tools everything but nothing like it compares in speed and ease of use on linux.
      It’s one of my many roadblock to transition to linux.

      • pitiable_sandwich540@feddit.org
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        1 day ago

        Have you tried RTFM? :P

        Jokes aside afaik you could do everything you mentioned with sort, find (with -type f, -printf and -mtime) and grep (filtering via regex with the -e flag).

        Alternatively you could try KDE’s file explorer dolphin (or even just its search utility kfind) as a graphical alternative.

        My point is switching to linux is not quick or easy, but there are few really impassable roadblocks (games with shitty kernel level anticheat for example) and there is a high likelyhood someone in this community has encountered your problems aswell and migjt even know a solution.

        • interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml
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          23 hours ago

          using find to sort all pictures in /pics/ by inverted (i.e., most recently accessed first) access time, and filtering only those with an exposure time between 1/20 and 1/100 seconds

          find /pics/ -type f \( -iname '*.jpg' -o -iname '*.jpeg' -o -iname '*.png' \) \
            -exec exiftool -ExposureTime -T {} \; -exec bash -c '
              file="$1"
              exposure="$2"
          
              # Convert exposure to decimal
              if [[ "$exposure" =~ ^([0-9]+)/([0-9]+)$ ]]; then
                  num="${BASH_REMATCH[1]}"
                  denom="${BASH_REMATCH[2]}"
                  exposure_val=$(echo "$num / $denom" | bc -l)
              else
                  exposure_val="$exposure"
              fi
          
              # Filter by exposure between 1/100 and 1/20 seconds
              if (( $(echo "$exposure_val >= 0.01" | bc -l) )) && (( $(echo "$exposure_val <= 0.05" | bc -l) )); then
                  atime=$(stat -c %X "$file")  # Access time (epoch)
                  echo "$atime $file"
              fi
            ' bash {} $(exiftool -s3 -ExposureTime {}) | sort -nr
          

          In voidtools everything it would be

          pic: path:"C:\pics" sort:da-descending ExposureTime:1/20..1/100

          But actually doesn’t work because “ExposureTime” is only available as an sorting order not a filter but you get the gist ;)

        • swelter_spark@reddthat.com
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          23 hours ago

          Nemo, Cinnamon’s file manager, also has great built-in search. I almost never feel the need to open up Catfish.

          • pitiable_sandwich540@feddit.org
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            21 hours ago

            Yeah, i like nemo a lot, i use it on my main machine when i need a gui, because it has not as many dependencies as dolphin. And it does not feel as “bloated” as dolphin. It does one thing (be a file explorer) and does well. :)

      • gnuhaut@lemmy.ml
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        24 hours ago

        Seems like a good and useful workflow for sure. Don’t know if something equivalent exists, maybe it doesn’t.

        I’d personally use find for this, but it is a command line tool, and while I have memorized some of the more common options (directories-only would be -type d for example), I’d have to look at the manpage for more advances options. It’s not hard exactly but it’s not easy-to-use GUI software for sure.

        • interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml
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          24 hours ago

          I’ve taken to using chatgpt to make me the more advanced find queries, before on linux I would ONLY use find /path | grep -i somenames So that’s already an improvement, if still a bit tedious

          The thing about everything is that it’s so ergonomic, fast and powerful.

          Being able to search anything and sort everywhich way with the click of a button

          Check out this sublime search syntax (this not even half of it ! )

          And the re-ordering by columns, and there are just SO MANY columns you can add, like search by EXIF camera exposure, no problem !

          I really wish there was something as good as “everything” on linux, it’s just awesome.

          • gnuhaut@lemmy.ml
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            23 hours ago

            Oh that’s pretty cool! I does seem like a shame to not have something like that on Linux.

            • interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml
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              23 hours ago

              Maybe it could run on something like wine ? But if there’s not something like… whatever it is that thing that makes WizTree faster than WinDirStat, then it would probably work in a very slow compatibility mode

              • gnuhaut@lemmy.ml
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                23 hours ago

                Maybe? It’ll almost certainly be worse (or not work at all maybe) than on Windows.