Catfish

What is Catfish?

Catfish started as a small project in 2008 to provide a fast, GTK‑based replacement for the Windows search tool Everything. It uses the built‑in file system APIs and optional indexing to deliver results in milliseconds, making it mature enough for everyday use.

The target users are Linux desktop users who need a quick, single‑window search without the overhead of a full desktop search daemon. It works well on GNOME, KDE, and other desktop environments.

Compared to Everything, Catfish feels more integrated into the Linux ecosystem: it supports native file managers, uses standard shortcuts, and respects file permissions, but it lacks the real‑time indexing of Everything’s Windows version.

Best for: Users who need a quick, local file search without running a full desktop search service.

Key features of Catfish

• Fast, non‑blocking search
• Optional database indexing for large directories
• Supports regex and wildcard patterns
• Displays file paths, sizes, and dates
• Integrates with file managers
• Portable across major Linux distributions

Tips for Windows users

If you’re coming from Everything, note that Catfish does not keep a constantly updated index unless you enable it. Use the "Index" option for large directories, and remember that shortcuts like Ctrl+F in your file manager will open the native search, not Catfish. File formats are unchanged; just open Catfish from the menu or run catfish in a terminal.