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Search Options Feature

Overview

The search dialog (find_files for filenames, find_in_files for contents, index_search for the OS index; Tab steps between them) carries four live options: whether capitals are matched exactly, whether only whole words count, whether the query is a regular expression, and whether subfolders are searched. They change the search you are already looking at — results re-run the moment you flip one — and they are all behind one key.

Press the options key while the search dialog is open — the dialog’s footer names it, and so does F1.

The chips

The right-hand end of the status row, next to the result count, always shows one chip per option that applies. A chip is filled with the accent color when the option is on and sits on a plain grey block when it is off, so the strip says what this particular search is doing at a glance and you never have to open anything to find out.

3 results                        [ Aa ] [ Word ] [ .* ] [ Sub ]
                                   off    off      on     on

Chip	On means
`Aa`	Capital letters are matched exactly
`Word`	Only whole words match — `cat` no longer finds `concatenate`
`.*`	The query is a regular expression
`Sub`	Subfolders are searched

Click a chip to flip it. The block you see is the button — the whole filled area, padding included — so the strip is the quickest way to change one option without opening anything. The search re-runs on the click.

Filename search shows only Aa and Sub: filenames are matched as glob patterns, so whole-word and regular-expression do not apply there and are not listed at all. The OS index shows none of the four: it reads its own query language and always searches everything below the folder.

The options box

It opens a small box over the search. There is no typing in it, so every option is toggled by the initial of its name:

  Case sensitive                off
  Whole word                    off
  Regular expression             on
  Search subfolders              on

c / w / r / s — toggle that option straight away
↑ ↓ — move, Space — toggle what is selected
a click on a row toggles it too, and the box stays open
Esc or Enter — close

Changes apply the moment you make them; the search behind the box re-runs while you watch. There is nothing to confirm, and closing does not undo anything.

Case sensitive

Off by default, so todo finds TODO. Turn it on and only the capitals you typed match. Applies to both filename and content search.

Whole word

Off by default. On, the query has to sit on a word boundary at both ends: cat finds a cat sat but not concatenate. Content search only.

Regular expression

On by default — that is what content search has always been. ., *, +, ^, $, […] and friends are live, and an invalid pattern reports “Invalid pattern” in the status line.

Turn it off to search for the characters you typed and nothing more: a.c then matches a.c and not abc, and a query that would be an invalid regular expression — C++( — simply searches for itself. Content search only.

Search subfolders

On by default — the whole tree under the current directory. Turn it off to search this directory alone, which is useful right after filtering the pane, when you mean “these files here”.

Subdirectories still match by name in filename search when this is off; they are just not walked into.

Filter chips

Three more chips narrow what is found, in every mode, without any query syntax:

3 results            [ Aa ] [ .* ] [ Sub ] [ Images ] [ Date ] [ Size ]

Chip	Values
`Kind`	Any kind, Folders, Documents, Images, Videos, Audio, Archives
`Date`	Any date, modified Today, in the Past 7 days, the Past 30 days, This year
`Size`	Any size, 1 MB, 100 MB or 1 GB or more (files only)

Click a chip to pick a value from the list that opens under it, the same kind of list a path field’s Tab completion shows. ↑ / ↓ move, Enter or a click picks, and Esc or another click on the chip closes it. A chip that narrows the search shows its value (Images) in the accent color; one that does not shows its name on grey. In the options box they are rows like the others: k, m and z step to the next value, and ← / → step either way.

The chips combine with what you type: *report* with Documents finds documents whose name contains “report”. In filename search and in the OS index they also search on their own, with the field empty. Content search needs words to look for.

The kinds are decided by file extension, the same way in every mode: Documents are PDF, Office, OpenDocument, iWork, text, Markdown, CSV and EPUB files; Archives include .zip, .tar.gz, .7z, .rar, .dmg and .iso.

The chips go back to Any every time the dialog opens, for the reason Search subfolders does.

Recent searches

Each mode keeps the queries you searched with. Click ▾ at the right end of the query field, or press Alt-↓, for the list under the field. ↑ / ↓ move, Enter or a click puts the query in the field and searches, Shift-Delete forgets the highlighted one, and Esc closes the list. Typing closes it too, and types. A query is remembered when you press Enter on its results.

What is remembered

Case, whole word and regular expression stay as you set them for the rest of the session, so a preference you express once keeps applying. Search subfolders always goes back to on when you reopen the dialog: a scope you narrowed for one search should not silently narrow the next one, especially since it is the option that decides how much of your disk gets read.

Nothing is written to disk — reopening XeFM starts from the defaults again.

Changing the keys

The keys shipped for the options action are in _config.py, and both are rebindable in ~/.xefm/config.py:

KEY_BINDINGS = {
    'search.options': ['Ctrl-P'],
}

Each option also has an action of its own, deliberately left unbound, for the one you change often enough to want a direct key:

KEY_BINDINGS = {
    'search.toggle_case': ['Ctrl-T'],       # match capitals exactly
    'search.toggle_word': ['Ctrl-W'],       # whole words only
    'search.toggle_regex': ['Ctrl-R'],      # read the query as a regex
    'search.toggle_subdirs': ['Ctrl-Y'],    # subfolders, or this directory only
}

The key must be one the query field does not want: the search dialog is a text field, so anything printable — including Space — is typing and can never fire an action. Use a modified or non-printable key. XeFM says so in the log pane at startup if a binding breaks this rule.