Search Your Files Using Catfish

Not everyone is very familiar with using the command line and now there is an option for users to have a graphical front-end for it. Sometimes it might be overwhelming for users especially new ones to use the command line. And it could be less confusing for them to have graphical symbols to help them. If you find it hard to remember to use the find command or locate then it’s better to find files using something else like Catfish. Catfish is the graphical front-end for find and locate, as well as other tools like strigi, beagle and pinot.

To search for files, you can enter the following criteria and/or select the following options:

• search expression
• look for exact match
• look for hidden files
• limit results and you could indicate by how much
• file type
• folder/directory
• search method – this is where users could select which tool to use for searching

If you don’t really remember the proper file name then it’s better to leave the “exact match” option unchecked. This is probably what users will use more often than not. After all, searching for whatever files you might have in your computer will not be easy at all if you really can’t remember the particular file name. Anyway, if it’s unchecked, Catfish will include those that have the search expression within the filename and then you could select among the results which one really is the file you’re looking for.

Catfish, a graphical front-end for searching

There are packages for Debian and Ubuntu, as well as a PCLinuxOS rpm. You could get the packages from the Linux App Finder page that talks about Catfish. Or you could get the source from the Catfish page here. However it seems like there isn’t much development happening with Catfish. There’s no update, so far. Even so, it is a useful application for users. So why don’t you go ahead and try it for yourself.