Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!software.org!stluka
From: stluka@software.org (Fred Stluka)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: directory "indexer"
Keywords: search,directory,index
Message-ID: <1547@software.software.org>
Date: 16 Aug 90 21:02:49 GMT
References: <335@nih-csl.nih.gov>
Sender: news@software.org
Reply-To: stluka@software.org (Fred Stluka)
Organization: Software Productivity Consortium, Herndon, Virginia
Lines: 37

In article <335@nih-csl.nih.gov> tpersky@alw.nih.gov (Ted Persky) writes:
> The people in our lab always seem to be asking each other
> to help them locate the path name for "foo.c".
> ...
> What I'm wondering is whether anyone knows of a tool where
> one can define a directory as being the root of a "large file
> tree" and have an index of some sort placed at that root.  After
> that is created, each person who creates a file in that particular
> sub-tree would type in some sort of librarian command to create
> an entry in the index with a brief description of the file.
> Then the index (in database form, preferably) could be queried
> to locate the path name for a desired file.  This would be ideal
> if people such as MIT could create this for their distributions
> of X, or UNIX vendors for their source distributions.

Can't help you with the solution you recommend (an indexer),
but if you are open to other solutions...

Teach the "people in the lab" about the "find" command.
You can even make it more convenient for them, by defining
an alias:

	alias dirr 'find . -name \!* -print | sort'

which allows them to cd to the root of the tree where the 
file is known to reside and type:

	dirr foo.c

Encourage them to use it on the smallest tree they know
to contain the file because the search is slow.

--Fred

Fred Stluka                          Internet: stluka@software.org
Software Productivity Consortium     UUNET:    ...!uunet!software!stluka
2214 Rock Hill Rd, Herndon VA 22070