5.9. FilesCatalog Package

Available since version 2.16

A package to catalog the content of your filesystem in a fine-grained fashion.

It allows to quickly access specific files and/or applications you frequently use without needing a third-party software unlike the Everything Package.

Note

  • This package is addressed to advanced users (more info below)

  • If you are looking for a way to browse the file system as you type a path, check out the FileBrowser Package

  • If you are looking for a way to search for files regardless of their location, check out the Everything Package (requires a third-party software)

5.9.1. Introduction

This package does not catalog any item by default and must be configured.

It is mainly addressed to advanced users who wish to have full control on the content of their Catalog. As a result, configuring it may feel like quite a tedious task to some, in which case you may prefer to explore the features offered by the Everything Package, or ask for help in the Support Chat Room.

To get the best out of it in terms of efficiency (speed and memory), it is best to understand the technical details exposed as inline comments in the default configuration file of the package.

Do not hesitate to head over to the Support Chat Room if you have questions.

5.9.2. Profiles

The configuration of this package is profile-based. Each profile corresponds to one scanning-then-filtering process of your files, before registering them into Keypirinha’s Catalog.

Each profile has essentially the following properties:

  • Its own configuration section in filescatalog.ini

  • A unique name among all the profiles.
    Recommended form is to keep it without space character, in lower case except for the first letter of each word like in: MyProfile, Applications, PortableSoftwares.

  • A set of paths to scan

  • Optionally a set of filters to include/exclude the scanned items according to their name, extension and filesystem attributes (hidden, read-only, …), …

  • Optionally a base profile to inherit from.
    It is convenient if you do not want to replicate in the current profile the values you already defined in the base profile.

  • And other…

5.9.3. Examples

Tip

For more details about each settings, read the inline documentation provided in the default configuration file of FilesCatalog, which can be opened by executing the item Keypirinha: Configure Package: FilesCatalog in Keypirinha.

5.9.3.1. Example 1

[profile/Docs]
activate = yes
paths = C:\MyDocumentsFiles

  • This is the simplest possible example. A profile named Docs is defined to instruct FilesCatalog to scan the immediate content of C:\MyDocumentsFiles for any kind of non-hidden files. Executable or not. The scan is not recursive.

  • Found files will be cataloged and searchable in Keypirinha by using their name. E.g. MyFile.txt. This default behavior can be modified by using option file_item_label (see Example 3).

  • The line activate = yes must always be specified for your profile to be taken into account by FilesCatalog at runtime. A profile is not active by default.

5.9.3.2. Example 2

You want to have access to executable tools you frequently use:

[profile/Tools]
activate = yes
paths =
    C:\Git
    C:\MyScripts\**
inherit = ExeOnly
max_depth = 3

  • paths can have one or multiple path patterns to be scanned.

  • The content of C:\MyScripts\ will be scanned recursively because the magic sequence ** is specified.

  • However it is good to limit recursive scanning as much as possible since it can be very resource demanding for your system.

  • For that reason, you can use the max_depth option, which indicates here that a maximum of 3 hierarchy levels will be scanned.
    That is, for instance, the content of C:\MyScripts\, C:\MyScripts\SubDir1\ and C:\MyScripts\SubDir2\ will be scanned. But not C:\MyScripts\SubDir1\SubDir2\SubDir3\.

  • This profile inherits settings from the profile named ExeOnly, predefined in FilesCatalog’s default configuration file.

  • inherit is convenient in case you wish to define several profiles that have common properties. It is an elegant way to structure your configuration file. Inherited settings can be overridden by simply re-defining it in the current profile. For example, would ExeOnly define max_depth = 1, the max_depth value for the Tools profile would still be 3.

5.9.3.3. Example 3

[profile/Things]
activate = yes
paths =
    C:\MyDocs
    C:\MyTools
    ${var:KNOWNFOLDER_DOWNLOADS}\**
    ${env:SYSTEMROOT}\system32\**
filters = + ext: .txt .xls .cmd .cpl
file_item_label = {profile}: {dir1}\{clean_name}

  • Path ${var:KNOWNFOLDER_DOWNLOADS} will be translated at runtime by Keypirinha to point to your Downloads folder, a standard Windows folder usually located at C:\Users\YourUserName\Downloads.
    See Configuration for an exhaustive list of the supported KNOWNFOLDER.

  • Likewise, ${env:SYSTEMROOT} will be translated to the content of your environment variable named SYSTEMROOT. Note that for both safety and security reasons, it highly recommended to prefer the KNOWNFOLDER variables over environment variables.

  • file_item_label allows to define how you can search the items cataloged by FilesCatalog. For example, if you have two files MyTools\File.txt and MyDocs\File.txt, both files would be searchable as File.txt, forcing to visually check at search time which item to choose out of the two.
    As it is defined here, the label of the cataloged these two items will be Things: MyTools\File.txt and Things: MyDocs\File.txt, allowing you to search your files also using their immediate parent name.

  • The filters option is a very powerful tool to filter-out or filter-in the currently scanned files and folders, by checking its extension, its filesystem attributes, and so on… Regular expressions can also be used. For more info, read its dedicated inline documentation in FilesCatalog default configuration file.