https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=447119
Bug ID: 447119
Summary: Summary: Dolphin/Baloo search with symlinks
Product: frameworks-baloo
Version: unspecified
Platform: Other
OS: Linux
Status: REPORTED
Severity: normal
Priority: NOR
Component: general
Assignee: baloo-bugs-n...@kde.org
Reporter: tagwer...@innerjoin.org
Target Milestone: ---
SUMMARY:
A review of Dolphin/Baloo search issues with symlinks (summarising the
different
issues to allow duplicates to be closed)
BASE ISSUE:
Baloo, when indexing, does not "follow" symbolic links and index the files
and
folders referenced. If you have not explicitly included the target folders
"to be indexed", then a baloo search will not find the files.
Baloo assumes there's a one-to-one mapping between the filename and the
index's
internal ID and can trip up if this is not the case.
This issue manifests itself in several ways - and there are three/four
variables in play, two with the indexing:
Where you've created the symlink (in a folder indexed by baloo or not?)
Where the symlink is pointing (is the real/target folder being indexed by
baloo or not?)
and then with the way you are searching:
If you are searching "From Here" in Dolphin, does Dolphin think that "Here"
is
indexed by baloo or not?
If searching "Your Files" (or "Everywhere") in Dolphin rather than under a
particular folder with "From Here".
This means rather many test cases but fortunately not so many different real
behaviours 8-]
Note that Dolphin reads the list of folders indexed by baloo and queries
baloo
when it thinks baloo knows. If Dolphin thinks that baloo has not indexed
the
"needed" folders, it will do it's own "there and then" search. (The
processes here
are baloosearch and filenamesearch)
This is a rabbit hole all of it's own, see the summary:
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=424871#c4
OBSERVED RESULTS:
Case 1...
Dolphin asks baloo for search results, the folder holding the symlink and
the
target folder are indexed.
As an example, baloo is indexing your home directory and you've created a
symlink in ~/Desktop to ~/Documents
In this case the command line baloosearch and Dolphin's Ctrl-F search will
return hits - and the files will be given with their canonical names (the
real/target folders).
In the example, the hits will be files under ~/Documents. All is good.
... 1a
A watch point is, if you are in Dolphin, follow the symlink to get to
~/Desktop/Documents and search "From Here", you will not get any hits.
Baloo has indexed ~/Documents and Dolphin is querying for results under
~/Desktop/Documents. Worse, Dolphin does not help you distinguish between
the cases, both show searching "From Here (Documents)".
Bug 333678, Bug 434610 (maybe), Bug 435383 and Bug 442786 are instances of
this...
Bug 442786 shows just how confusing this can be: if baloo is enabled you
will
not get any hits searching "From Here" whereas if baloo is disabled,
Dolphin will
do it's own filenamesearch and you *will* get hits.
Case 2...
Dolphin asks baloo for search results, the folder holding the symlink is
being
indexed but the target is *not*.
As an example, baloo is indexing your home directory, you've created a
symlink
in your home to a separate disk you've mounted as /media/morespace
In this case the target folders are not being indexed. Baloosearch and
Dolphin's
Ctrl-F search won't return anything
This is confusing if you thought baloo followed the links and indexed the
target
directories and, as said, baloo doesn't do that.
... 2a
The solution is to add "/media/morespace" to the list of included folders
in
System Settings > Search (or by adding it to the folders[$e] line in
.config/baloofilerc).
When this done, searches will work and give the "Canonical names" as above.
However maybe that's not quite what you're expecting (you want the hits to
show the symlink and not dereference it to show the target file/folder.
This
expectation gets complicated if you have more than one symlink...)
This solution also means that if you are in your Home Directory and search
in
Dolphin "From Here", you won't get hits from your "/media/morespace"
folders.
Alternative is to search "Your Files" ("Everywhere" of old and it's worth
remembering
that the simple command line "baloosearch searchterms" give you results
from "Everywhere")
Bug 439438 and Bug 446715 are instances of this...
... 2b
Empirically, it also seems possible to tell baloo to index the symlink.
That is, to
index ~/morespace rather than the target /media/morespace. It seems that
querying
baloo then gives the hits "as if" in under ~/morespace.
However, in Bug 435383, it was said "Don't do that":
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=435383#c14
Case 3...
You've created a symlink in a folder that is not indexed by baloo.
If you are in a folder not indexed by baloo, Dolphin will drop back
to it's own "there and then" search, as mentioned in:
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=424871#c4
The challenge is to work out if Dolphin is asking baloo for the search
results or not. Dolphin gives you a slight clue, if the search box looks
like this:
https://bugsfiles.kde.org/attachment.cgi?id=137169
then Dolphin is asking baloo (and you see that you can specify extra search
criteria) whereas if it looks like this:
https://bugsfiles.kde.org/attachment.cgi?id=137170
then Dolphin will do its own filenamesearch.
As an example, by default Fedora does not index your home directory, just
the ~/Documents, ~/Music, ~/Pictures, ~/Videos folders.
If you've created a symlink on your ~/Desktop pointing to ~/Documents and:
You are in ~/Documents and searching "From Here":
You'll be querying baloo and it will find the hits under
~/Documents and
you'll see them in the Dolphin search
You have followed your symlink to ~/Desktop/Documents (which is not
indexed)
and are searching "From Here":
You'll do a recursive Dolphin filenamesearch and see results
"under"
~/Desktop/Documents
You are in your Home folder (also not indexed) and are searching "From
Here":
You'll do a recursive filenamesearch though your entire home
directory
(including following symlinks) and you'll get duplicated results
from both
~/Documents and ~/Desktop/Documents
This is *difficult*. Bug 436737 is an example of the confusion.
WISHED FOR RESULTS:
Baloo should follow symlinks and index target folders (at least those
mounted
in /etc/fstab)
Baloo/Dolphin searches should give the same result set, independent of
whether
the search "is from" the symlink or the target directory. The full
filenames
returned should probably reflect the "From Here"
That is - searching from ~/morespace gives results under morespace,
similarly
if searching from your home directory. Searching from /media/morespace
gives
the results under there and similarly searching "Your Files" (or
"Everywhere") returns results as per their real filename. There's an
implication
here that baloo is clever with symlinks, indexes the "real filenames" but
can do
searches based on the symlink.
Dolphin filename searches, whether via baloosearch or falling back to
filenamesearch,
should give the same results.
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