1.7 Finding Data on your Computer or in the File System
KDE provides more than one application for finding data on your
computer or in the file system. With Kerry, you can very easily
search your personal information space (usually your home folder) to
find documents, e-mails, Web history, IM/ITC conversations, source
code, images, music files, applications, and much more. For more
information, refer to Section 11.0,
Searching with Kerry.
With KFind, you can locate files on your computer or in the file
system using a variety of search criteria, such as file content,
dates, owner, or file size. Start it from the main menu with
. Alternatively, press
F2
and enter kfind.
1.7.1 Finding Files
To perform a search for certain filenames, proceed as follows:
-
Start KFind from the main menu or command line.
-
Click the tab to
perform a basic search.
-
Specify the name of the file to find in
. You can use the following wild cards:
- Asterisk
-
The asterisk (*) stands for any number of missing
characters (even zero). For example, searching for
marc* can find the files
marc, marc.png, and
marc_must_not_read_this.kwd.
Searching for can find
marketplace.kwd and
marc_must_not_read_this.kwd.
- Question Mark
-
The question mark (?) stands for exactly one character.
For example, searching for mar? can find
marc, but marc? cannot
find anything if your files are named marc
and marc.png. You can put as many question
marks in the search term as you want. It finds exactly that
number of characters.
You can combine those two wild card symbols in any search
term.
-
Specify the folder to search in or
click to find the folder you want.
Select to also search all
subfolders starting from your specified folder.
-
Press or click
.
1.7.2 Performing an Advanced File Search
For a more detailed search, you can also specify further
options, such as a text the file to find must contain:
-
Start KFind from the main menu or the command line.
-
Click the
tab.
-
Specify the name of the file to find in
.
-
Specify the folder in which to search in or click to find the
folder.
-
Click the tab.
-
In , specify the type of file to
find.
-
In , enter the word or
phrase the file you are searching for must contain.
-
If you want to specify further options, click the
tab and choose the options you
want. If you hold the mouse pointer over the options or fields, a
short description is displayed.
-
Click to perform the search.
For detailed information about the search options available,
refer to the KFind online help.
For advanced searches, you may want to use search patterns or
regular expressions. KRegExpEditor offers search options based on
regular expressions. You can install KRegExpEditor with YaST
as the package kdeutils3-extra. For more
information about search patterns and the use of wild cards or
regular expressions, refer to “Getting Started with the Bash Shell” (Chapter “Working with the Shell”, ↑Deployment Guide).
