quickfind 1.5.4

Search local files instantly with configurable, interactive CLI
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quickfind

Search files instantly: configurable, interactive, Rust-powered.

asciicast

Remember part of a filename? Find it instantly in milliseconds, open it in your default app or jump straight into vim.

Install Quickly

$ cargo install quickfind

Seamless onboarding (works with cargo install quickfind)

After install, just run:

$ quickfind

If this is your first run (no config yet), quickfind automatically starts setup wizard:

  • asks your index locations,
  • builds initial index,
  • optionally enables Linux user daemon.

You can also run setup manually at any time:

$ quickfind --setup

Quick Start (recommended)

1) Pick your locations interactively

$ quickfind --init

This onboarding command asks for directories to index and writes ~/.quickfind/conf.toml.

1-b) Or run full setup in one command

$ quickfind --setup

This runs onboarding + indexing + optional daemon install in one flow.

2) Build the index once

$ quickfind --index

3) Enable always-on watcher daemon (Linux, user service)

Create this file:

~/.config/systemd/user/quickfind-watcher.service

[Unit]
Description=quickfind watcher daemon
After=default.target

[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/home/YOUR_USER/.cargo/bin/quickfind --watch
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=2
Nice=19
IOSchedulingClass=idle

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

Then enable it:

$ systemctl --user daemon-reload
$ systemctl --user enable --now quickfind-watcher.service
$ systemctl --user status quickfind-watcher.service

4) Search instantly any time

$ quickfind <your-query>

# OR interactive mode
$ quickfind

Manual watcher mode (foreground)

$ quickfind --init

$ quickfind --index

$ quickfind --watch

Polling fallback (when native fs events are unreliable)

$ quickfind --watch --watch-poll

# tune poll interval (ms)
$ quickfind --watch --watch-poll --watch-poll-interval-ms 400

Daemon logs

$ journalctl --user -u quickfind-watcher.service -f

Disable daemon

$ systemctl --user disable --now quickfind-watcher.service

Since I started using Linux, I always felt one essential tool was missing: a fast, reliable file finder like Everything Search on Windows.
So I built quickfind in Rust. Its configurable indexing and interactive TUI make finding files fast, reliable, and effortless.

  • Configurable: Customize search locations, ignored paths, and search depth via a simple config file.
  • Interactive Onboarding: quickfind --init asks for locations and writes config for you.
  • Efficient Indexing: Traverses directories once and stores paths in a local database for lightning-fast searching.
  • Background Sync: --watch mode keeps the index updated in near real-time as files change.
  • Polling Fallback: --watch-poll provides cross-filesystem resilience when native notifications are unreliable.
  • Bounded Memory Watcher: Pending watcher memory is capped (watch_pending_ram_cap_mb, default 200).
  • Spill-to-Disk Backpressure: Overflow snapshots are persisted to disk and replayed safely.
  • Graceful Degradation: If both RAM and spool are pressured, watcher falls back to coarse scoped reindex markers (correctness first).
  • Crash-Safe Recovery: Pending spool segments are replayed on watcher startup.
  • Interactive Interface: Browse results with a minimal TUI, open files in default apps or vim.
$ git clone https://github.com/0xsecaas/quickfind
  1. Build the project:
$ cd quickfind
$ cargo build --release
  1. Run the application:
$ ./target/release/quickfind

# OR

$ cargo run

Config file: ~/.quickfind/conf.toml

include = [
    "/path/to/your/directory",
    "/another/path/to/search"
]
ignore = [
    "**/node_modules/**",
    "**/.git/**",
]
depth = 10
editor = "vim" # "vi" or "code" or "subl" or any editor of your choice
highlight_color = "lightblue"
watch_pending_ram_cap_mb = 200
  • include: Absolute paths to directories you want to index.
  • ignore: Glob patterns for paths to exclude.
  • depth: Maximum directory depth to traverse.
  • editor: Preferred editor for opening selected files from TUI.
  • highlight_color: Optional result highlight color in TUI.
  • watch_pending_ram_cap_mb: Watcher in-memory pending buffer cap (MB). Default is 200 if omitted.
  • Tab: Switch between search input and results
  • Arrow Keys: Navigate results
  • Enter: Open selected file/directory with default app
  • v: Open selected file with vim
  • d: Open containing directory
  • Esc: Exit interactive mode
  • main.rs: CLI parsing and orchestration
  • config.rs: Loads/saves config and powers interactive onboarding (quickfind --init)
  • db.rs: Handles persistent file indexing storage
  • indexing.rs: Traverses directories and populates the database
  • watcher.rs: Filesystem watcher loop with debounce, batching, adaptive prune, bounded pending queue, spill-to-disk segments, replay/quarantine, and overflow fallback
  • tui.rs: Interactive Text User Interface
  • Fuzzy Search Mode: typo-tolerant and ranking-aware matching
  • Usage-Aware Ranking: prioritize frequently opened files

Open issues, submit PRs, or suggest features.

MIT License