File Minnow is an instant file search app for Linux. It works like Everything on Windows: it indexes your file and folder names once, keeps the index up to date in real time, and finds files as you type, across millions of files, in milliseconds. It is a small native app written in Rust with a compact GTK interface, a global hotkey and a tray icon.
If you have been looking for "Everything for Linux", a faster locate, or a
lightweight desktop file search for Linux Mint, Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Arch or openSUSE,
File Minnow is built for exactly that.
- Instant results. Searches over a 1.6-million-file index typically take 10–50 ms. Results update on every keystroke.
- Real-time index. New, renamed and deleted files appear in the open results within
a fraction of a second (Linux inotify). There is no hourly
updatedband no stale results. At start-up only the folders that changed since the last run are read again. - Light on resources. About 100 MB of memory for a 1.6-million-file index. It uses 0 % CPU when idle, has no animations, and never polls in the background.
- Familiar search syntax.
AND,|(OR),!(NOT), wildcards,ext:,size:,dm:/dc:(date modified / created, withthisweek,lastmonth,last7days…),path:,regex:,dupe:(by name, size or contents),empty:,wholeword:,parent:,child:,content:and type filters likepic:anddoc:. Type:in the search box for a list. - Accent- and case-insensitive. Typing
stiintafindsȘtiință,ecolefindsÉcole. - Native desktop app. It follows your GTK theme, fonts and file icons. Matches are highlighted; columns (name, path, size, modified, type, created, items) sort naturally and can be hidden; folders show the total size and number of what is inside them; a thumbnail grid and an optional preview pane show pictures, videos and documents.
- Saved searches. Bookmarks, search history with completion, your own filters in the drop-down beside the search box, and export of results to CSV or text.
- Drives and shares. Removable drives can be indexed when plugged in and stay
searchable (greyed) while unplugged. Network folders are recognised and rescanned on a
schedule. Adding a folder indexes only that folder. Snapshot folders (Timeshift,
Snapper, ZFS) are skipped. Everything file lists (
.efu) can be exported and indexed, for example a list made nightly on a NAS. - The right-click menu you expect. Open, Open With, Open Containing Folder, Open in Terminal, Cut/Copy (paste straight into your file manager), Rename (several files at once, with a preview), Move to Trash, Exclude from Index and Properties, with Undo. It also shows your file manager's custom actions (Nemo actions, Thunar custom actions, Dolphin service menus, Nautilus and Caja scripts). Drag results to a file manager, the desktop or a browser.
- Recent changes. A history of what was created, deleted, changed, moved or renamed in your folders, including what changed while File Minnow was not running.
- Global hotkey and tray icon. Press your shortcut from anywhere and start typing. X11 is supported, and Wayland through the GlobalShortcuts portal.
- Part of your desktop. Results also appear in GNOME's Activities search and KDE's KRunner, and "Search Here with File Minnow" can be added to the folder menu of GNOME Files, Nemo, Caja, Thunar and Dolphin.
- Built for keyboard use. Escape hides the window, Enter opens a file, F2 renames, Delete moves to the trash, and Ctrl+C copies the file.
- Private and local. No root, no network and no telemetry. It indexes only the folders you choose, with your own permissions.
- Command line too. Use
file-minnow search 'ext:pdf invoice'in scripts, with NUL-safe output and exact Linux path bytes (non-UTF-8 names are preserved).
Get the latest .deb or portable archive from
Releases, then:
sudo apt install ./file-minnow_*_amd64.debThe .deb works on Ubuntu 22.04+, Linux Mint 21+, Debian 12+ and their derivatives. The
portable .tar.gz runs on other 64-bit glibc distributions with GTK 3 (Fedora, openSUSE,
Arch…).
sudo snap install file-minnow
sudo snap connect file-minnow:removable-media # optional: USB drives under /media and /mnt
sudo snap connect file-minnow:mount-observe # optional: recognise drives and network foldersThe snap is sandboxed: it searches your home folder (but not hidden folders directly
inside it, such as ~/.config) and, once connected, removable drives. Open in Terminal
and your file manager's custom actions are not available in it. For whole-system search,
use the .deb or the portable archive. See docs/install.md.
Install Rust (via rustup) and the GTK 3 development files:
| Distribution | Command |
|---|---|
| Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Pop!_OS | sudo apt install build-essential pkg-config libgtk-3-dev |
| Fedora | sudo dnf install gcc pkg-config gtk3-devel |
| Arch, Manjaro, EndeavourOS | sudo pacman -S --needed base-devel gtk3 |
| openSUSE | sudo zypper install gcc pkg-config gtk3-devel |
Then build and run:
git clone https://github.com/Puddings22/File-Minnow-Linux.git
cd File-Minnow-Linux
cargo build --release --locked
./target/release/file-minnow gui --root "$HOME"The folders you index are saved, so later starts only need file-minnow gui.
scripts/package.py builds a .deb (Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint) and a portable
.tar.gz for other glibc-based distributions. See docs/install.md for
packaging, desktop integration, autostart and the optional background service.
- Start File Minnow and add folders with File → Add Folder… or
Tools → Options → Folders (or pass
--root). The status bar shows indexing progress. A large home folder takes seconds, not minutes. - Type. Results follow every keystroke; click a column header to sort.
- Press the global shortcut (Ctrl+Alt+Space by default; change it in Options → Keyboard) from anywhere, type, and press Enter.
| Search | Finds |
|---|---|
invoice |
names containing "invoice" |
invoice 2026 |
both words (AND) |
report | invoice pdf |
(report OR invoice) AND pdf: OR binds tighter, as in Everything |
<a b> | c |
explicit grouping |
!draft |
names without "draft" |
"hello world" |
an exact phrase, including spaces |
*.pdf, IMG_????.jpg |
wildcards on the whole name |
ext:pdf;docx |
extensions |
pic: doc: audio: video: zip: |
common file types |
file: / folder: |
only files or only folders |
path:projects/src |
match against the full path |
case:README |
case-sensitive |
size:>100mb, size:1kb..2mb |
file size; folders count the files inside them |
dm:today, dm:2026-10-07, dm:>2026-01-01 |
date modified (local time); dc: for date created |
dm:thisweek, dm:lastmonth, dm:2026, dm:last7days |
calendar periods, years, months, and periods up to now |
wholeword:report, ww:report |
whole words only |
dupe:, dupe:size, dupe:content |
results sharing a name, a size or their contents with another result |
empty: |
empty folders |
parent:/home/alex/Documents |
directly inside a folder (no subfolders) |
child:README.md |
folders that contain an entry with that name |
content:invoice total |
text inside files (slow: reads each candidate file, best combined with other terms) |
regex:"^report.*\.pdf$" |
regular expression (Rust syntax) |
More in the user manual.
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| Your global shortcut | Show or hide File Minnow from anywhere |
| Ctrl+L | Focus the search box |
| ↓ / ↑ | Move into and through the results |
| Enter / Alt+Enter | Open / Properties |
| Ctrl+C / Ctrl+X | Copy / cut the selected files (paste in your file manager) |
| F2 / Delete | Rename (several at once) / move to trash |
| Ctrl+Z | Undo a rename or a move to the Trash |
| Shift+F10 or Menu | Right-click menu |
| Ctrl+, | Options |
| F5 | Rescan |
| Escape | Hide the window (to the tray) |
In Nemo and Dolphin, right-click a folder → Search Here with File Minnow opens the
window scoped to that folder (file-minnow show --in FOLDER from scripts). Add it to
GNOME Files, Caja or Thunar in Options → Interface.
Is there a version of Everything for Linux? voidtools Everything is Windows-only. File Minnow is an independent Linux app with the same idea: an instant filename index with Everything-style search syntax, a global hotkey and a tray icon.
How is it different from locate / plocate?
locate reads a database refreshed by updatedb, often daily, so new files are missing.
File Minnow watches your folders and updates instantly. It also has a desktop UI with
sorting, a type filter and file actions.
Does it search inside files?
Not by default: like Everything, it searches file and folder names and paths, which
is why it is so fast. content:text additionally reads the candidate files (up to 16 MB
each), so combine it with a name term or type filter to keep it quick.
Does it need root, or does it index the whole disk?
No root. It indexes only the folders you add, with your own permissions. Pseudo
filesystems (/proc, /sys, /dev, /run) are always skipped.
Which desktops does it work on? Any Linux desktop with GTK 3: Cinnamon (primary test desktop), GNOME, KDE Plasma, Xfce, MATE, Budgie and others. The global hotkey and the tray work on X11. On Wayland the hotkey uses the GlobalShortcuts portal where the compositor provides it, and the tray needs a StatusNotifierItem host. Window show and hide on Wayland is still being improved.
How much memory does it use? Roughly 60–70 bytes per indexed entry plus the GTK window. For 1.6 million files that is about 100 MB of index and about 170 MB for the whole app. See docs/performance.md.
File Minnow is young (0.x). It is used daily on Linux Mint Cinnamon. Wayland window show/hide is not yet verified on every compositor, and there is no built-in web server for searching from another device. Bug reports and pull requests are welcome.
cargo fmt --all -- --check
cargo clippy --locked --all-targets -- -D warnings
cargo test --locked --all-targets
cargo build --locked --no-default-features # CLI and daemon without GTKWithout system GTK development packages, scripts/with-gtk-sdk.sh cargo build can use an
extracted SDK in .dev/gtk-sdk. The desktop integration tests run on a private X server
and D-Bus session and never touch your desktop:
python3 scripts/test_ui.py --xvfb /path/to/Xvfb [--tray] [--portal] [--daemon-first] and
python3 scripts/test_focus.py --xvfb /path/to/Xvfb (runs Muffin inside Xvfb). See
CONTRIBUTING.md.
MIT. See LICENSE.
File Minnow is an independent project and is not affiliated with or endorsed by voidtools. "Everything" is the name of voidtools' Windows search tool. It is mentioned here only to describe what File Minnow is similar to.