I have a large directory tree of source files. I want to search around all these files. My first instinct is to use grep -R or ack, but either way they just sequentially read all the files.
Is there some lightweight programme that I can install that will scan all the files once, build and index, and then at any later date I can search for certain words? That should be quicker than just doing loads of grep's. The files I want to search won't be changing, so I don't need something that will index files automatically.
I'm not looking for something that will scan all the files on my harddrive, and i want something locally that's easy to install and set up on a local desktop machine, for simple almost throwaway searching.
Bonus points if the software in the normal ubuntu repositories.
Ideally I want something that's as easy to use as this:
sudo aptitude install supersearch
cd /path/to/where/I/wanna/search
supersearch --make-index
supersearch "foo bar"
Best Answer
Sounds like you want Beagle. Its main purpose is as a comprehensive desktop search, but you can tell it to just look at the source tree you want to index.