FSearch

What FSearch is

FSearch is a free file-search utility for Linux, designed as a standalone application for advanced users. Inspired by Everything Search Engine, it is written in C and based on GTK3. Results appear as you type, and searches can use advanced syntax, wildcards, or regular expressions. Filters let you search for files, folders, or both. You can choose folders to include in or exclude from indexing, and use wildcard expressions to exclude files or folders. Results can be sorted by filename, path, size, or modification time. FSearch supports local, removable, and network index locations, but not searching inside file contents. The project is licensed under GPL-2.0 and provides stable and development packages. Listed requirements include GTK 3.22, GLib 2.60, glibc 2.19 or musl 1.1.15, PCRE2 10.21, and ICU 4.4. The Flatpak package has limited features. Sorting many results by type can be very slow because type details are not indexed, and items moved to Trash may remain in results because the database index is not updated.

Who it suits

FSearch is intended for advanced Linux users who want a standalone file-search application. It supports indexing across local, removable, and network locations.

Limits

The Flatpak package has limited features. Type information is not indexed, so sorting many results by type can be very slow; moving files or folders to Trash does not update the database index.

Getting started

1. Open the FSearch project website on GitHub.
2. Choose a stable or development package, or the Flatpak package.
3. Check the listed GTK, GLib, libc, PCRE2, and ICU requirements.
4. Set which folders to include in or exclude from the index.
5. Search using text, advanced syntax, wildcards, or regular expressions.

Verdict

FSearch offers configurable indexing and several search and sorting options for Linux users. Be aware of its content-search gap and the listed limitations around sorting by type and Trash updates.