quick-find-files.el/README.org

#+title: quick-find-files.el
#+author: Lucien Cartier-Tilet
#+email: lucien@phundrak.com
* Introduction
~quick-find-files.el~ is a utility package for all of you out there that
often find themselves looking for the right file in the right place,
but you can’t be bothered to have a specific keybinding for that
particular file for one reason or another.

Now, you have a utility for finding files by directory with an
associated extension! Let’s say you often open files with a ~.org~
extension from your directory =~/org/=, this package will try to find it
insantly for you!

[[file:./assets/quick-find-files.gif]]

* Motivation
I often find myself opening a specific set of files, but they are too
numerous to make each one of them a keybinding. Well, I actually
could, but I end up with way too much for my taste. In fact, at the
time I’m writing this, I would have to manage a hundred keybindings
for my various org files alone! Unmanageable!

* Installation
** Prerequisites
First of all, make sure either ~find~ (which is fairly standard, it
should be there by default) or [[https://github.com/sharkdp/fd][~fd~]] are available on your system, as
this package relies on one or the other depending on your choices
(~find~ by default). On some systems, ~fd~ is installed as ~fdfind~ or
similar, you may need to configure ~quick-find-files-fd-executable~ if
you wish to use it.

** Local installation
The vanilla way of installing this package would be to clone this
repository somewhere in your Emacs’ ~load-path~, or add the following
line to your Emacs configuration:
#+begin_src emacs-lisp
(add-to-list 'load-path "/path/to/quick-find-files.el")
#+end_src

Then add the following lines to your configuration:
#+begin_src emacs-lisp
(require 'quick-find-files)
#+end_src

** Straight + use-package
My personnal choice in terms of installing packages is using straight
with use-package. Here is my own configuration of ~quick-find-files.el~:
#+begin_src emacs-lisp
(use-package quick-find-files
  :defer t
  :ensure t
  :straight (quick-find-files :type git
                              :host github
                              :repo "Phundrak/quick-find-files.el")
  :custom ; Depending on your preferences, of course
  (quick-find-files-program 'fd)
  (quick-find-files-dirs '((:dir "~/org" :ext "org" :ignored ("~/org/config"))
                           (:dir "~/.emacs.d/lisp" :ext "el")
                           (:dir "~/Documents/Work/" :ignored ("dir1" "report.docx")))))
#+end_src

** Other methods
I am aware other methods are available for installing packages in
Emacs, such as ~quelpa~ or Spacemacs’ and DoomEmacs’ package managers,
however I am yet unsure how to install this package with them. If you
do, feel free to submit a PR with new instructions!

* Customizing
A couple of variables can be editer by the user in order to configure
~quick-find-files.el~:
- ~quick-find-files-program~ :: The program to use in order to find your
  files. The two currently supported options are ~'find~ and ~'fd~, the
  former being the default choice.
- ~quick-find-files-fd-executable~ :: Specify the executable to use when
  using the option ~'fd~.
- ~quick-find-files-find-executable~ :: Specify the executable to use
  when using the option ~'find~.
- ~quick-find-files-dirs~ :: Specify in which directory the package
  should search for files. This is a list of property lists which must
  at least contain a ~:dir~ property.

  An optional ~:ext~ property indicates which file extension to look for
  in this directory and will exclude all other extensions. Be careful,
  this may be case-sensitive.

  An optional ~:ignored~ property indicates a list of paths the package
  will filter out. Paths in this property can be either files or whole
  directories. If a path is relative, the package will consider the
 ~:dir~ directory to be its parent path. For instance, in the code
  below, the package will filter out the directory
 =~/Documents/Work/CVEs= and the file =~/Documents/Work/report.docx= when
  searching in =~/Documents/Work=.
  #+begin_src emacs-lisp
'((:dir "~/org" :ext "org" :ignored ("~/org/config"))
  (:dir "~/.emacs.d/lisp" :ext "el")
  (:dir "~/Documents/Work" :ignored ("CVEs" "report.docx")))
  #+end_src
- ~quick-find-files-dirs-and-exts~ :: *DEPRECATED*, use
 ~quick-find-files-dirs~ instead.

  List of pairs between directories and extensions. For one directory,
  the program will be searching recursively all files with the
  specified extension. Possible value:
  #+begin_src emacs-lisp
'(("~/org" . "org")
  ("/tmp" . "html")
  ("~/code/C" . "h"))
  #+end_src
  This specific example will recursively search for all ~.org~ files in
 =~/org=, all ~.html~ files in ~/tmp~, and all ~.h~ files in =~/code/C=.

* Upcoming changes
- Plans exist to customize the maximum depth at which ~find~ and ~fd~ are to
  search for files.
- Search for multiple extensions within the same directory with a
  future ~:exts~ property in ~quick-find-files-dirs~.
- Exclude specific extensions when searching for all files with a
  future ~:ignored-exts~ property in ~quick-find-files-dirs~.

* License
~quick-find-files.el~ is available under the GNU GPL-3.0 license. You
can find the full text in [[file:LICENSE][LICENSE]].