Search function in File browser does not function

Confirmed in Gutsy. Thanks for your report.

So now we have in Gutsy this search function that ridiculously lacks functionality, and yet this bug is marked as low? What gives?

To add some information to this bug report, I noticed that if you search that way for a word that's isolated in the file name, that file will appear in the search result. If the word is included in the file but not separated by spaces, it won't show up.
Example: searching for "cat" will return the file "yellow cat", but not the file "catwoman".

confirmed in a fresh 7.10 i386 installation

Gabriel I faced the same problem and landed here. Can you please check bug #150379 [1]. I'm quoting from it:
   "Nautilus integrated search (CTRL+F) does not return any result...[but] Searching through "Places -> Search file" works as usual."
This is the case for me. Can you tell us if it's the same for you.

____________
[1] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nautilus/+bug/150379

maybe dupe bug #154692

Definitely not a duplicate of bug #150379, which I checked out: I have tracker enabled. It could be a duplicate of bug #154692 as Nick says above, but I think we may be facing two different problems here:

1- If you search a folder that tracker has not indexed, the search won't return anything

2- Even if you search an indexed folder such as your home folder, tracker search doesn't interpret your search query in the same way nautilus used to do. As I reported above, it doesn't seem to allow you to search for part of a file name. It may allow you to search for part of a word IN a file, but that can get very confusing.

I can't help but think of the legions of newbie users who are being confused to death right now... I install linux systems for friends who are really bad for computers, so I know what their experience would be with this.

How could this be rated as low priority.

It is using Tracker's results when it shouldn't be.
There needs to be an option to let Nautilus not use tracker

If I navigate to a folder and then do a search all I want is results within the folder.

This is annoying before you could navigate to the /usr/share/icons folder

and search for "contact-new.png" and you will get all the varieties of it in thumbnails.

With this Tracker search you can't expect us to index our root folder.

Also if you search for a general term like you .jpg you will get a zillion results. While with the old search it was specific to a folder.

This used to be on feature that Ubuntu excelled over XP now its worse, and useless.

I have somewhat the same error, though the search function does actually find stuff... though the Places >> Search for Files... finds many more.

Coming from
Coming from https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/154692 ...

I run into the same problem. I didn't know Nautilus relied on tracker, and one of the first things I did when installing gutsy was disabling tracker daemon in System>Preferences>sessions.

I don't search that often, but obviously searches never worked in nautilus, I was using search -name in a terminal.

I should have got a warning by nautilus that searches don't work if tracker deamon is off.

Also I second the option to have nautilus optionally not to depend on tracker. I don't want any PC-wide index in my desktop. I doesn't make any sense for me (a search across 20000 files in my home desktop takes 3 seconds) plus it can have security implications.

Thanks for hinting tat Places > Search still works, I hadn't noticed it.

In my Ubuntu 7.10, 386 machine:
- Confirmed, nautilus search doesn't work.
- Confirmed, search through places>search for files... DOES work.

Greetings :-)
JC
_____________________

Confirmed here, too.

In the Debian distribution is also this bug.
Shall It come from here ...
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Search function still doesn't work in Hardy Alpha 4.

That is ridiculous if they expect Hardy to be LTS. How do they expect to deliver an OS in a corporate function without a basic search tool.

I agree with pt123. Setting the importance of this bug to "Low" seems to be plain wrong in my view.

> How do they expect to deliver an OS in a corporate function without a basic search tool.

I expect that they don't expect to do that because "they" are not reading this bug report!

I don't know if many of the developers have worked in a non IT work environment.
Because in these environments the Project folder and filenames are often used to differentiate files, not the contents as most companies use templates.

It would also be silly to expect one to index the data from all the company's projects, as the number of files is so vast.

The old Nautilus (6.10) used to do this beautifully and better than Windows XP.

The lack of feedback from the developers is very discouraging, and a big deterrent in reporting future bugs.

Hi guys,

I originally reported this bug while occasionally flirting with Ubuntu A QUARTER YEAR AGO. It's VERY disappointing to find out that this bug is still there. We're not talking here about wrong font in help or bad indentation somewhere. This is a search function for god's sake! I'm a fan of Linux in a sense that I like to see it's getting more popular but how is this sustainable if these blatant mistakes stay there? Very disappointing :-/ I know this is not a forum but someone, please fix it!

Thanks,
Marek

those comments are not constructive, the issue is a lack of manpower one and adding complains will not make it better

Giving us a reason such as "lack of man power" is very helpful.

It is better for us to know the reason why it is allocated low priority than holding us in the dark.

Please soooooooooolve, it's really baaaaaaaaad, I can't advertise for Ubuntu among my friends while this stupid bug is here :S, how could a developer ever commit such a bug?? Will it be in Hurdy as well?? I can't believe it!! INDEXING MUST BE OPTIONAL, NOT MANDATORY!! I don't like to use indexing!!

Most of the times whining doesn't help at bugs getting fixed. Sometimes it even delays fixing because developers get pissed off (also note that the bug is "triaged" that is work on fixing it is about to begin)

regarding "INDEXING MUST BE OPTIONAL, NOT MANDATORY": this choice is not the topic of this bug.

To maintain a respectful atmosphere, please follow the code of conduct - http://www.ubuntu.com/community/conduct/ . Bug reports are handled by humans, the majority of whom are volunteers, so please bear this in mind.

I have opened a "thread" on the new Ubuntu Ideas website for this.

Please log in and vote for it

http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/476/

+1 for this this happens on my gutsy
+1 for "I can't believe it's been given low priority"

Ridiculous, this is a basic problem. I were install Ubuntu 7.10 in the my cousin's PC, but when he saw this problem I had to keep a clownface. ¬¬

This bug was fixed in the package nautilus - 1:2.21.92svn20080303-0ubuntu2

---------------
nautilus (1:2.21.92svn20080303-0ubuntu2) hardy; urgency=low

  * debian/control.in:
    - don't use tracker since when it's used only the indexed files are listed,
      the search doesn't work when tracker is not running and it's not
      what users expect (lp: #81977, #148701, #150379)

 -- Sebastien Bacher <email address hidden> Wed, 05 Mar 2008 14:59:03 +0100

wow \o/ :O

Great news, I thought this wasn't going to be fixed for Hardy.
I am assuming this will reach Hardy?

I already tested it in Hardy Alpha 6 and it really works! It has some nice features too.

For those interested I have created a howto on recompiling nautilus in Gutsy to disable tracker integration.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=4524522

Just tested in Hardy Beta1 and it does NOT seem like it works.

Open nautilus, navigate to my audio folder, click search, type "*mp3", nothing is found. Do the same in Places>Search for Files, and hundreds of matches show up.

remove the asterisks and search for ".mp3" or even "mp3"
This works for me in Hardy beta for me

Weird! pt123, you are right, thanks for the advice.

Now, the "*mp3" search string workis fine in "Search for Files", but it doesn't work at all in the integrated nautilus search!

Maybe this inconsistency is a problem with patch/workaround?

the * not working is bug #41704

I haven't upgraded to hardy yet (cause of some stories on forums), and I can confirm this bug still occurs on 7.10 with all the updates. I believe it can be patched for 7.10, as it is my favorite distro.

The only think that I (and many other users) want is for the search button in a folder to work as if the user went to Places->Search for files->"browse to folder"

I don't know about indexing and stuff, but searching one way works fine, while the other way doesn't work at all. Just make them work the same (in the good way)

Thanks, and still waiting for a patch (I don't want to re-compile anything)

Hi Alecz20,
If it isn't fixed by now, chances are that devs have other priorities. Why don't you simply give Hardy a try? It's at "point 1" now, and everything works almost fine for me.

BTW: The bug is reported, well known already, and almost surpassed by new versions. I don't see the point on further reporting in the bug track.

Hi JC Cheloven,

This is a bit OT but I read so many "horror stories" about Hardy regarding random crashes/freezes and I am not sure I am ready for that. Also, I don't know what exactly "point 1" fixes.

I am also hesitant to upgrade to Hardy at the moment as my system is running just as I like it however it is indeed quite unlikely that problem will be fixed in the 7.10 version of nautilus. If you haven't had a look at the instructions for recompiling nautilus you really should it is not difficult at all (if it was I probably wouldn't have figured out how to do it)

Don't change the status without saying why.