KatSearch

KatSearch is a work in progress and currently only available as an alpha release. Some things will be broken. Caveat emptor!

Mac power-user app to quickly find files on entire APFS and HFS+ volumes by scanning the file system catalog.

Do you miss the good ol’ days before Spotlight, when search on the Mac simply scanned the filesystem? Yeah, me too.

Unlike Spotlight, KatSearch performs no indexing and only looks at filenames, not content. It uses a fast low-level kernel call to search the entire file system via the APFS or HFS+ file system catalog.

• Fast, native, modern macOS app with a responsive, powerful, no-nonsense interface
• Displays live search results
• Scans the actual file system, not just the userland files Apple wants you to see
• Can run with admin privileges to find all files irrespective of permissions
• Ubiquitous native drag and drop behaviour, with hooks into Finder actions/services via contextual menu
• Supports all the standard Finder keyboard shortcuts for file actions
• Search windows can be invoked using a global hotkey
• Includes searchfs, a command line tool counterpart
• Free, open source software written in Objective-C/Cocoa

If you find this program useful, please support continued development by making a donation.

Downloads

This is an early alpha release for testing purposes only. Some things will be broken.

• ⇩ Download KatSearch 0.1a (~0.8 MB, Intel 64-bit, 10.10 or later)

To test the absolutely latest in-development version, clone this repository and run the following command from the repo root:

$ make

The built application can be found in products/.

Screenshots

BSD License

Copyright (C) 2018-2021 Sveinbjorn Thordarson <sveinbjorn@sveinbjorn.org>

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.

2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

3. Neither the name of the copyright holder nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

The KatSearch application icon is copyright (C) Drífa Thoroddsen.