fdb is a file database / program launcher similar to Apple's spotlight. It features a live index of all files in a set of directories and allows searching those files in a fast and uncomplicated manner. It uses the inotify feature of recent Linux kernels and is thus only available for operating systems implementing inotify (though it could be adapted to, say, dnotify, with some shortcomings). The menu is displayed using the dmenu utility from http:https://suckless.org and the notifications (should a program not be found or the output captured) need notify-send (though adapting for dzen or similar should be trivial).

fdb consists of two scripts which need notify-send (they can do without but with it's nicer) and inotifywait (which on gentoo is in the ebuild sys-fs/inotify-tools). Also they need dmenu.

The first, mimehandler, is a simple script which checks the mime-type of a file and opens an appropriate application. It can also handle magnet links and http URLs, but that is just a bonus for using it as a browser for the xdg-open script.

The second script, fdb.sh, is where the magic happens. The script has three modes of operation:

• rebuilddb: this one simply rebuilds the file database
• update : this one runs as a daemon, watching the specified directories for new and removed files, updating the database as needed
• command : this one launches dmenu, piping in the file database and the command cache. It then launches either the mimehandler with the specified file or the commandline entered.

The fdb.sh script uses four files:

~/.config/fdb/directories contains a list of directories to watch. Mine looks like this:

/home/gregor
/mnt
/media

~/.config/fdb/blacklist contains a list of grep regular expressions for paths not to watch. Mine looks like this:

\.adobe
\..*swp
\.cache/chromium
\.cache/vlc
\.ccache
\.config/chromium/.*Cache.*
\.dbus
\.git/
\.git$
\.macromedia
\.mc
\.subversion
\.svn

~/.cache/fdb/files contains a list of files in the watched directories ~/.cache/fdb/commands contains a list of commands entered.

fdb supports a ~/.dmenurc, which is a short snipped of shellscript that sets the DMENU variable. The variable contains the dmenu command to run. Mine looks like this:

DMENU='dmenu -b '                                      # bottom
DMENU=$DMENU'-xs '                                     # xmms matching
DMENU=$DMENU'-i '                                      # case insensitive
DMENU=$DMENU'-o 0.9 '                                  # opacity
DMENU=$DMENU'-nb #333333 -nf #999999 '                 # not selected colors
DMENU=$DMENU'-sb #1279bf -sf #ffffff '                 # selected colors
DMENU=$DMENU'-fn -*-terminus-*-*-*-*-12-*-*-*-*-*-*-*' # font

where -xs, -i and -o might need additional patching (-xs and -i are available from the dmenu repo, -o is a patch I have in my local tree. If anyone wants that, drop me a line (the patch is kind of a mess at the moment so I'd rather not put it out there for any unsuspecting soul to stumble upon)).

Usually, the fdb.sh script is started like this to enter monitor mode:

fdb.sh update &

I do that in my ~/.xinitrc. Then one simply needs to run

fdb.sh

to pop up the dmenu with files and commands. At first the command list will be empty, but simply entering the commandline will lead to the command being run and cached in the command cache. That allows creating a cache of often used commands for convenience. I have that command bound to Caps + Enter by the way.

The script also supports a verbose mode which uses notify-send to capture the command output and display it in a notification. For example one might run

fdb.sh -v

to start the verbose mode and then enter

cal -3

to have a notification show a three months calendar.

Copyright (c) 2010 Gregor Best

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

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