How can I create a search or locate database of an external 4tb hard drive?

Frickymind · 03-16-2024, 03:06 PM

Hi,
I have a couple of 4tb USB hard drives. On my desktop I use the Catfish file search or krusader to find files on my home ssd. I want to create a search index or database on my external drives that lets me search through the drives when they are connected, preferably using a gui interface. Is there any way to do this?

teckk · 03-16-2024, 04:39 PM

Search the file tree of the mount point.

If you have a ntfs drive mounted at /mnt/disk1, then search the file tree that descends from that mount point.

Code:

/mnt
    /disk1
        /dir1
            subdir1
            subdir2
        /dir2
        /dir3

you can use any search tools that you want.

Code:

find /mnt/disk1/dir1/subdir1 -name myfile.txt

I think that mlocate works well with a database it makes.

Edit:
https://pagure.io/mlocate
https://plocate.sesse.net

michaelk · 03-16-2024, 05:03 PM

updatedb by default excludes /media but I assume your USB drives are not always mounted. You can create a separate mlocate database but I do not know if you can select which one to search in krusader. You might be able to specify both using the environmental variable LOCATE_PATH separating the two databases with a ":"

Normally locate searches a database but the search results may not be complete depending on when the last updatedb was executed which is usually via anacron. With external drives if you want to use locate and if you update their contents frequently then you will need to manually run updatedb. If you want to only search the USB drives when they are mounted then using "live" search might be a better method.

Frickymind · 03-17-2024, 08:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by teckk

Search the file tree of the mount point.

If you have a ntfs drive mounted at /mnt/disk1, then search the file tree that descends from that mount point.

Code:

/mnt
    /disk1
        /dir1
            subdir1
            subdir2
        /dir2
        /dir3

you can use any search tools that you want.

Code:

find /mnt/disk1/dir1/subdir1 -name myfile.txt

I think that mlocate works well with a database it makes.

Edit:
https://pagure.io/mlocate
https://plocate.sesse.net

Thanks. I'll try it. Is the code below for the terminal?

Code:

/mnt
    /disk1
        /dir1
            subdir1
            subdir2
        /dir2
        /dir3

Frickymind · 03-17-2024, 08:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by michaelk

updatedb by default excludes /media but I assume your USB drives are not always mounted. You can create a separate mlocate database but I do not know if you can select which one to search in krusader. You might be able to specify both using the environmental variable LOCATE_PATH separating the two databases with a ":"

Normally locate searches a database but the search results may not be complete depending on when the last updatedb was executed which is usually via anacron. With external drives if you want to use locate and if you update their contents frequently then you will need to manually run updatedb. If you want to only search the USB drives when they are mounted then using "live" search might be a better method.

Yeah, the problem is that they are mounted only occasionally. I want each disk to have its own database separate from my desktop's.

michaelk · 03-17-2024, 09:40 AM

You can easily create a separate database:

Quote:

updatedb -l 0 -o /path/to/database -U /path_to/USB/

And you can search a separate database using the cli.

Quote:

locate -d /path/to/database PATTERN

I don't know if there is a way to specify a particular database in krusader. There are many ways to create a simple dialog based search tool using yad, zenity or dialog if desired.