Pseek

Fast and powerful command-line search tool for finding files, directories, and text content.

Features

• Search file names
• Search directory names
• Search file contents
• Search inside archive files
• Boolean query expressions (and, or, not)
• Regular expressions
• Fuzzy matching
• Whole-word matching
• Case-sensitive search
• Archive recursion depth control
• Extension filters
• Path filters
• Size filtering
• Full path output
• Highlight matches in output
• Cross-platform (Linux, macOS, Windows)

Installation

Install from PyPI (Recommended)

pip install pseek

Install from Source

git clone https://github.com/grootle/pseek.git

cd pseek

python -m venv venv

# Activate virtual environment

pip install .

Basic Usage

psk <query> [options]

Example:

psk "error"

If no search type is specified, Pseek searches:

• File names
• Directory names
• File contents

simultaneously.

Command Options

Search Types

Search File Names

psk "config" --file

Search Directory Names

psk "backup" --directory

Search File Contents

psk "TODO" --content

Search Everywhere

psk "error"

Equivalent to:

psk "error" --file --directory --content

Query Modes

By default, the query is treated as plain text.

Example:

psk "hello world"

Case Sensitive Search

psk "Hello" --case-sensitive

Matches:

Hello

Does not match:

hello
HELLO

Whole Word Search

psk "cat" --word

Matches:

cat

Does not match:

cats
concatenate

Regular Expression Search

Enable regex mode:

psk "error\d+" --regex

Example matches:

error1
error25
error999

Fuzzy Search

Fuzzy search allows approximate matching.

Example:

psk "apple" --fuzzy

Can match:

appl
appel
aple

Fuzzy Similarity Threshold

psk "apple" --fuzzy --fuzzy-level 90

Range: 0-99

Higher values require closer matches.

Examples:

Default: 80

Expression Queries

Expression mode enables logical search expressions.

Enable:

psk '("error" or "warning") and not "debug"' --expr

Supported Operators

AND

psk '"foo" and "bar"' --expr

Both terms must match.

OR

psk '"foo" or "bar"' --expr

At least one term must match.

NOT

psk 'not "foo"' --expr

Exclude matches containing the term.

PARENTHESES

psk '("foo" or "bar") and not "baz"' --expr

Used for grouping expressions.

Expression Prefixes

Each term can have its own search mode.

Regex

r"pattern"

Example:

psk 'r"error\d+"' --expr

Case Sensitive

c"text"

Example:

psk 'c"Error"' --expr

Whole Word

w"text"

Example:

psk 'w"cat"' --expr

Fuzzy

f"text"

Example:

psk 'f"apple"' --expr

Combined Prefixes

Prefixes can be combined.

Examples:

rc"text"
cw"text"
cf"text"
wcf"text"

Example:

psk 'rc"Error\d+"' --expr

Meaning:

• regex
• case-sensitive

simultaneously.

Allowed modes: r, c, w, f, rc, cr, cw, wc, cf, fc, wf, fw, cwf, cfw, wcf, wfc, fcw, fwc

Note: Whole word matching and regex matching cannot be used at the same time, because we can use \b in regex to enable whole word matching: r"\btext\b"

Extension Filters

Include only specific extensions:

psk "TODO" --ext py --ext js

Exclude extensions:

psk "TODO" --exclude-ext exe --exclude-ext dll

Path Filters

Include Paths

psk "TODO" \
    --include src \
    --include tests

Only search inside those paths.

Exclude Paths

psk "TODO" \
    --exclude build \
    --exclude .git

Skip those paths.

Regex Path Filters

Include

psk "TODO" \
    --re-include "src/.*"

Exclude

psk "TODO" \
    --re-exclude "node_modules|dist"

Size Filters

Limit search by size.

Maximum:

psk "TODO" --max-size 100

Only search files/directories up to: 100 MB

Minimum:

psk "TODO" --min-size 10

Only search files/directories larger than: 10 MB

Archive Search

Enable archive support:

psk "TODO" --archive

Supported formats: zip, rar, 7z, gz, bz2, xz, tar, tar.gz, tar.bz2, tar.xz

Nested Archives

Pseek supports nested archives for multi-file archive containers (zip, rar, 7z, tar and compressed tar formats). Nested archive traversal means Pseek can search inside an archive that itself contains other archives (for example a.zip containing b.7z containing c.tar.gz).

Example:

backup.zip
 └── source.7z
      └── notes.txt

Pseek can search:

backup.zip::source.7z::notes.txt

Archive Depth

Limit recursion depth:

psk "TODO" --archive --depth 2

Meaning archive level 1 and archive level 2 will be searched. Deeper levels will be skipped.

Note: --depth 0 means perform the search only within this current archive and don't enter nested archives.

Archive Filters

Extension Filters

psk "TODO" --archive --arc-ext py

Only search .py files inside archives.

psk "TODO" --archive --arc-exc-ext jpg

Exclude .jpg files inside archives.

Path Filters

Include:

psk "TODO" --archive --arc-include src

Exclude:

psk "TODO" --archive --arc-exclude cache

Size Filters

Maximum:

psk "TODO" --archive --arc-max 10

Minimum:

psk "TODO" --archive --arc-min 1

Values are in MB.

Note: Archive directory sizes are usually reported as zero by archive formats, therefore archive size filtering is mainly useful for files.

RAR Backend

RAR archives require an external helper programs. To enable full support for RAR, either install one of the helper programs in your PATH or provide a backend configuration to Pseek.

Supported backends include:

• UnRAR
• 7-Zip
• BSDTar
• Unar

If one of these is installed and available in PATH, Pseek will detect it automatically when --archive is used and enable archive traversal for RAR files. If not detected, Pseek prints a warning and archive support for that format is disabled.

Use the --rar-backend option to persistently configure a backend and its path.

Examples:

• Linux: psk "unrar" --rar-backend /usr/bin/unrar
• Windows: psk "unrar" --rar-backend "C:\Program Files\WinRAR\UnRAR.exe"

Enter the file type in the query (e.g. unrar, bsdtar, unar, 7z).

Output Options

Show Full Paths

psk "TODO" --absolute-path

Paths Only

Only display matching file paths:

psk "TODO" --content --paths-only

Useful for very large result sets.

Timeout

Stop the search automatically after a specified number of seconds.

Example:

psk "TODO" --timeout 0.5

If the search exceeds the limit, it will be terminated. Results found before the search is terminated are still displayed.

Search Statistics

Display a summary of the search, including result counts, scanned paths, archive information, and search time.

pseek "config" --stats

Example output:

Statistics
────────────────
Results
  Files: 12
  Directories matched: 3
  Files with matched content: 8
  Lines matched: 24
  Matches: 31

Search
  Files scanned: 1,248
  Archives scanned: 5
  Directories scanned: 96

Search time: 0.128s

Result statistics

• Files matched — Number of files whose names matched the query.
• Directories matched — Number of directories whose names matched the query.
• Files with matched content — Number of files containing at least one content match.
• Lines matched — Number of lines containing one or more matches.
• Matches — Total number of matches found in the contents of the files.

Search statistics

• Files scanned — Number of files examined during the search.
• Archives scanned — Number of archives processed, including nested archives found inside other archives.
• Directories scanned — Number of directories reached and examined during traversal.

When --archive is enabled, file and directory statistics can also include paths inside archives, not just physical paths on the filesystem.

Directories scanned can be 0 when the search path contains no subdirectories. The root search directory itself isn't counted as a scanned directory.

Search time

Time spent performing the search.

When --timeout is used, the statistics represent the work completed before the timeout.

Requirements

• Python 3.10+
• unrar, bsdtar, unar or 7zip for the rarfile library to support searching inside .rar files (optional)