How to search in multiple partitions or folders at once? Basically you cannot do it with Nautilus or Dolphin file manager, respectively. But you can do it with Krusader or PCManFM file manager, on any desktop environment. I will demonstrate an example to search for ISO files stored on different partitions of an external hard disk drive. Enjoy!
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Good News
First is their wide coverage. Krusader is originally a file manager of KDE, while PCManFM is of LXDE. But both of them can be used on any other desktop environment. For example you can use Krusader on XFCE, or PCManFM on GNOME.
Second is about LXQt. The new file manager, PCManFM-Qt, can already do multiple search just like its predecessor, PCManFM. This increases our choices of file manager to do this. So no matter which one of both I mention, the feature is just the same.
Krusader
This is how Krusader, the twin panel file manager, looks. If this is your first encounter with it, know two things: icon between Back and Home is the partition list, and, Ctrl+S for search (not Ctrl+F here).
(Krusader File Manager initial user interface)
To do multiple search, do the following:
- 1) Press Ctrl+S to open search dialog.
- 2) Type .iso as the keyword on the Search for box
- 3) Click folder button on under Search in frame
- 4) A folder select dialog appears
- 5) Select a partition from the external hard disk and OK
- 6) The partition address appears on the box
- 7) Press down button right before the folder button
- 8) The partition address inserted down in the list box
- 9) Repeat step 3 to 8 for another partitions
- 10) Press Search button to start multiple searching.
This is how search dialog looks like:
(Adding multiple search locations)
And finally this is the result:
(Notice the Ext column: it shows that all found files have extension of .iso)
PCManFM
I take this example from Lubuntu 18.10 so it uses PCManFM-Qt, not the old PCManFM. But don't worry as the feature is exactly the same.
- 1) Go to menu Tool > Find Files.
- 2) Type the keyword *.iso (don't forget to use star)
- 3) Activate Case insensitive and Search sub directories
- 4) Click Add button
- 5) A folder select dialog appears
- 6) Navigate to open a partition (clue: on Ubuntu, all external storages are located under /media/{username})
- 7) Press Open button
- 8) The partition address appears on the list box
- 9) Repeat step 4 to 8 for another partitions
- 10) Press Search to begin multiple searching.
This is how PCManFM looks:
(PCManFM-Qt on Lubuntu 18.10; PCManFM on prior versions looks very similar)
This is the search dialog:
(Use star ( * ), activate 'Case insensitive' and 'Search in sub directories')
This is the result:
(Notice all files found have extension of .iso)
Further Readings
- Krusader handbook (user manual)
- Krusader bug track
- Krusader on Wikipedia
- PCManFM official page
- PCManFM release notes
- PCManFM on Arch wiki
- PCManFM on Wikipedia
- PCManFM-Qt source code on GitHub
- PCManFM articles on Lubuntu Blog
This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.