quickly finding files on various USB sticks

[user101]

I am after some software that can keep a list of all files found on my rather unmanageable collection of USB sticks. I want to avoid the needless waste of time searching for things.

THINGS I HAVE DONE
* labelled each USB stick in GParted.
* applied masking tape to each USB stick & labelled each of them

The missing piece of the puzzle is the software. I want to be able to search with keywords. The software then finds the file and tells me which USB stick has it. Suggestions?

[DukeComposed]

I am after some software that can keep a list of all files found on my rather unmanageable collection of USB sticks. I want to be able to search with keywords. The software then finds the file and tells me which USB stick has it. Suggestions?

One option is to, for each USB stick you own:

1. Insert the USB. Note its path in Thunar, such as "/media/user/New Volume", and pick a decent name for it, like "Red Sony 16GB".
2. In a terminal, run 'find "/media/user/New Volume" > ~/usb_red_sony_16gb.txt'
3. Put the text file somewhere safe like "~/Documents/USB_library".

When you want to look for "eclipse photos 2024", run 'grep -ril "eclipse" ~/Documents/USB_library" and every text file that contains a file or directory with the word "eclipse" in it will be printed. You could do something similar with "ls -lR". Most other forms of file-tracking software like Catfish, FSearch, and fzf assume that the media is attached and can be scanned at will. I think git-annex can tell you which remote contains a given file, but git-annex will drastically change how you store your data and is probably overkill for what you're asking.

[JmaCWQ]

I do this by saving a .txt file with the contents of each stick/drive listed for easy searching.
I have at present about 18 separate .txt files and use Geany to open and search them all at once for whatever it is I'm looking for that I've got stored on whatever drive or stick, within a matter of seconds I know what device to plug in and retrieve the desired item from.

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ls -Rlhp --group-directories-first /media/home/STORAGE-1/ | sed -e 's/^.*home home //' > /home/home/Desktop/STORAGE-1.txt

That creates a text file on my Desktop listing the full contents of a drive I named STORAGE-1.
Login username on that particular machine is 'home'.
I think grep can be used to search them also, though I've never tried it, I just use Geany.

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grep -riF <search string> /path/to/directory/containing/text/files

Thanks goes to Fehlix who showed me those options a few years ago

EDIT: if the contents of a device is changed I just create a new text file for it, I guess it could be automated somehow upon a change but that's way above my pay grade

[user101]

Thanks for the suggestions guys, but I need something far simpler for my still-newish-to-linux mind to handle. Since posting I have found:
https://www.fsoft.it/VVV/ Virtual Volumes View

After extracting the app, I open up a Terminal in its directory and type this to run it: ./vvv-start.sh
This is not as easy as I'd like, but this is fine, but probably the limit of the complexity I can live with. The program then starts up with a comfortable GUI that seems to do what I want (so far). Cataloging volumes and updating volumes seem to have their own menu choices, so I think this might be what I'm after. 'Search' inside the app seems to work too. I have just added 3 physical sticks so far, but it seems to be working.

If there are any other suggestions, keep them coming.

[davidy]

Dawnlightsearch appimage-31.1mb: A Linux version of Everything Search Engine. Creates searchable db files of any partition.
github.com/chg-hou/DawnlightSearch/releases
I found it using the App(image) Manager scripting program which essentially is a db of appimages and portable softwares that you can download from a cmd line. Currently there are 1964 images and aps so there may even be another one that is better than dawnlight. AM; app manager also integrates the appimages to your system better than does appimage launcher imo.

[Charlie Brown]

Ok, though this is already not what you want (and a bit similar to the above one) , for those who might benefit later: There is also this thread:

viewtopic.php?t=53404

... This is not as easy as I'd like ...

You can create a launcher and put an icon on panel and/or desktop and/or create hotkey(s) (from "Keyboard") and/or an "alias" (say, you issue just qq in a terminal and it knows what you mean (tip: "Bash Config" from menu))..

Shortly, just use the "full path" (without the tilde) for any of these (everyone will help on "how to" in case you need), i.e.

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sh /home/charlie/.../.../vvv-start.sh

[pbear]

Not what you asked for, but the best solution (imho) would be to buy a USB hard drive, copy the flash drives to it, and have everything in one place. Actually, buy two drives, so you can back up one to the other.

[user101]

Thanks all.

You can create a launcher and put an icon on panel and/or desktop and/or create hotkey(s) (from "Keyboard") and/or an "alias" (say, you issue just qq in a terminal and it knows what you mean (tip: "Bash Config" from menu))..

Shortly, just use the "full path" (without the tilde) for any of these (everyone will help on "how to" in case you need), i.e.

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sh /home/charlie/.../.../vvv-start.sh

Thanks for reminding me that I could do this. I made a launcher with the sh /home/user/Applications/VVV-1.5.0-x86_64/vvv-start.sh command. It's very easy to start up the app now. All smiles here.

In the meantime I also found another app named Librer https://github.com/PJDude/librer in case people are interested. I am sticking with Virtual Volumes View for now but it's nice to know there is another one out there.

[user101]

Not what you asked for, but the best solution (imho) would be to buy a USB hard drive, copy the flash drives to it, and have everything in one place. Actually, buy two drives, so you can back up one to the other.

Yes, ideally one day, everything will be simplified, But not yet.

SSD hard drives are still too expensive if you are looking for bulk storage. Mechanicals HDs are priced OK but I don't want to worry about shock when travelling. I plan to catalogue SD cards, DVDs and Blu-rays too. Some of the USB sticks are bootable sticks which are best left as bootable USB sticks. These USB sticks often have additional PC files on them. Some of the SD cards have non-camera files on them too (a desperate attempt to find more space and save files on them too). It's a real mess, but soon it won't be so bad because at least I'll know what's where.

Long story short: too much storage. It seems like there's never enough.