How do you find information in your files? Alternatives for fulltext search and text-heavy document archiving

How do you find information in your files?

Use case:

  • finding commands in cheatsheets
  • finding URLs to handbooks / manuals
  • useful tutorial etc.

The example screenshot shows results for the Excel command =sumproduct() . It works, but it’s not pretty.

Any suggestion and idea would help.

use grep
man grep for more info on grep

Maybe something with fzf+ripgrep :

Not sure, if it is what you are looking for - my mc (midnight commander) has a function to search across the whole dir-tree (from where you sit actually). You may search for a pattern for filenames or / and some text inside these files. Output goes into a list you can browse and hit some file to go there. Mouse or keybord, what you like (and have).
→ Command → file search → pick your options - go.
Most cases it is sufficient for me - and works anywhere…

I dropped Baloo in favour of Recoll, which is a great app for full indexing and searching of content and files to the level you’re looking for. Give it a try! https://www.recoll.org/

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