The program is an indexing search tool, meaning it has a local database of file content that it checks, rather than looking over all files on your machine. This means the program must always be running to monitor changes, but search results are instant. Search tools are based on Apache Lucene software, a widely-used, open source search engine.
I was actually looking for something to do this again on my desktop machine, and then found I had an old version of this app installed still. Much like the old Copernic Desktop Search, which I used a good two decades ago, this is near instant search as it is just searching what it has indexed.
You can specify just what directories, and even extensions, should be indexed. It has built in full text search for most major file formats including MS Office, OpenDocument, Outlook PST, ePub, PDF, etc.
It is Eclipse Public License open source code for the non-pro version, and although it is Java based, it is pretty fast. On Manjaro Linux, it installed directly from the AUR.
As they state, it is crap-free, free forever, cross-platform, portable, private (local only), and indexes only what you need. You can also set minimum and maximum file sizes to index.
See https://docfetcher.sourceforge.net/en/index.html
#technology #fulltextsearch #search #docfetcher #opensource