It took much longer than expected, but the 0.3 release is now finally here.

Here's what you can expect:

Filesystem monitoring

Probably the most requested feature so far, is now finally ready: Folders can now be monitored for changes and results are updated almost instantly when something on your filesystem changes. This should drastically reduce the need for frequent manual or scheduled rescans of the database and provide much more accurate search results.

It might not look like much, because in the GUI it's just an additional checkbox, but internally this required lots of changes and added a lot of complexity, which effectively resulted in a complete rewrite of the database engine.

For more details about this feature and some of its limitations see: https://github.com/cboxdoerfer/fsearch/wiki/Database-update#fs-monitoring

Per-Folder indexing options

Settings which used to apply globally to the database (e.g. Rescan every 2 hours) can now be configured for each individual indexed folder. This adds a lot of flexibility, especially when dealing with a mixture fast and slow filesystems (e.g. network shares), which require different rescan schedules.

Improved Exclude-Rules

In 0.3, folders and files can be excluded using fixed patterns, wildcards, or full regular expressions, so you have much finer control over what gets left out of the index.

Improved Rescan-Schedules

Scheduling is now based on absolute elapsed time rather than app uptime, so if FSearch happens to be closed when a periodic rescan was due, that rescan will simply run as soon as the app is opened again instead of being skipped.

Added detection of reappearing indexed folders

The database now notices when an indexed folder goes offline. For example when a removable drive is unplugged and later plugged in again, it will automatically be picked up and scanned again.

A Welcome Dialog

Because many of those features can be easily missed, there's now a one time welcome dialog after updating to 0.3.

Contributions by others

• Restore Deleted Filesystem Entry Icon by @bilgincoskun in #383
• fix some typos by @cuishuang in #404
• Add compatibility for MacOS by @DUOLabs333 in #411
• Add offline help by @pixel96x in #430
• Project configuration fixes and metadata updates by @pixel96x in #431
• Fix some memory leaks by @Kakueeen in #495
• Added file preview feature by @Kakueeen in #497
• Use a thumbnail as the file icon by @Kakueeen in #496
• Set program name to fix the missing icon when running under Wayland by @Integral-Tech in #543
• trial: opening first result on Enter by @porridgewithraisins in #570
• add more image formats by @porridgewithraisins in #593
• open folder with dbus by @itaib in #642
• align RTL text to the left when widget dir is not RTL by @itaib in #641
• Update POTFILES by @ryonakano in #665
• Use ngettext to correctly localize plurals by @ryonakano in #670
• Remove unnecessary strerror against %m by @ryonakano in #671
• Improve metainfo by @ryonakano in #672
• Fix typo in copyright year in fsearch_limits.h by @Acyone in #673

Thank you!

As always, thanks to everyone who tested the betas, reported issues, and contributed code, translations, donations or feedback along the way!

New Contributors

• @bilgincoskun made their first contribution in #383
• @cuishuang made their first contribution in #404
• @DUOLabs333 made their first contribution in #411
• @Integral-Tech made their first contribution in #543
• @porridgewithraisins made their first contribution in #570
• @itaib made their first contribution in #642
• @ryonakano made their first contribution in #665
• @Acyone made their first contribution in #673

Full Changelog: 0.2.3...0.3