everythingx

README

EverythingX

EverythingX is a fast file name search tool for macOS and Linux.

It started as an attempt to get Everything by Voidtools on a Mac. A background service watches the filesystem and keeps an index up to date without rescanning the disk. You search it from a GUI app or from the command line, and results show up as you type.

Compared to Spotlight, locate and find, it's quicker to index, it picks up changes as they happen, it stays light on CPU and memory, and it starts instantly.

There are three binaries:

• everythingxd: the background daemon that watches for file changes
• everythingx: the GUI app
• ev: the command-line search

Command line

ev searches the index from the command line. It's much faster than find, and you can pipe the output into grep or anything else.

Usage

ev search_term [-b] [-u] [-x]

-b bold search term in the result. This option helps readability of the output but interferes with piping results to another command.
-u show only results in the current user's home directory ($HOME).
-x show only executable files (regular files, or symlinks to them, with any execute bit set). Each result is checked on disk, so this is slower for terms with many matches.

ev -ux build
/home/alan/bin/build.sh

ev bashrc
/private/etc/bashrc
/private/etc/bashrc_Apple_Terminal
/home/alan/.bashrc

GUI app

everythingx shows full paths and file details as you type. Columns sort and resize, and right-clicking a result lets you reveal it or copy its name, path or folder.

Background service

everythingxd gets file change events from the kernel: FSEvents on macOS, and fanotify on Linux (needs root and kernel 5.9+). It also does an occasional full scan to catch anything it missed.

Installation

Pick your platform. Each recommended method also handles upgrades.

Platform	Recommended
macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel)	Homebrew
Debian, Ubuntu and derivatives	apt
Fedora, RHEL, openSUSE and derivatives	Install script

Supported platforms: macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel) and mainstream glibc Linux with systemd, on x86_64 and arm64. Alpine/musl is not supported.

macOS: Homebrew

brew install --cask alankk/everythingx/everythingx

brew upgrade picks up new releases. brew uninstall --cask everythingx stops the daemon and removes the app and binaries; add --zap to also delete the index in /var/lib/everythingx and the log.

Full Disk Access: however you install on macOS, grant Full Disk Access to everythingxd in System Settings -> Privacy & Security -> Full Disk Access for complete indexing. This has to be done by hand.

Debian / Ubuntu: apt

sudo install -d -m 0755 /etc/apt/keyrings
curl -fsSL https://alankk.github.io/everythingx/everythingx.gpg | sudo tee /etc/apt/keyrings/everythingx.gpg >/dev/null
echo "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/everythingx.gpg] https://alankk.github.io/everythingx stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/everythingx.list
sudo apt update && sudo apt install everythingx

apt upgrade picks up new releases. The repo covers amd64 and arm64 and keeps the five newest versions; for anything older, use the manual download below.

Fedora / RHEL / openSUSE: install script

There's no dnf/zypper repository yet, so use the install script. It also works on macOS. It detects your OS and CPU, downloads the matching native package from the latest release, and installs it. On Debian/Ubuntu it sets up the apt repository instead:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/AlanKK/everythingx/main/install.sh | sudo sh

Pin a specific version:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/AlanKK/everythingx/main/install.sh | sudo EVERYTHINGX_VERSION=v1.0.0 sh

Re-run the script to upgrade (on Debian/Ubuntu, apt upgrade does it).

Manual download

Prefer to install by hand? Grab the package for your platform from the Releases page:

Platform	Package
macOS (Apple Silicon)	EverythingX_macos-apple-arm64.pkg
macOS (Intel)	EverythingX_macos-intel-amd64.pkg
Linux x86_64 (Debian/Ubuntu)	everythingx_linux_amd64.deb
Linux x86_64 (Fedora/RHEL)	everythingx_linux_amd64.rpm
Linux arm64 (Debian/Ubuntu)	everythingx_linux_arm64.deb
Linux arm64 (Fedora/RHEL)	everythingx_linux_arm64.rpm

macOS: double-click the .pkg file to install, then grant Full Disk Access as described above.

Linux:

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo dpkg -i everythingx_linux_*.deb

# Fedora/RHEL
sudo dnf install ./everythingx_linux_*.rpm

Linux notes

The daemon requires root for fanotify (kernel 5.9+). The data directory /var/lib/everythingx/ is created automatically. The GUI needs libGL/X libraries at runtime; on a minimal/headless server the everythingxd daemon and ev CLI still work without them.

Running locally without installing

make build

# Start the daemon
sudo bin/everythingxd

# Search from CLI
bin/ev -b filename

# Launch GUI
bin/everythingx

Building from source

Prerequisites

• Go 1.27.3+
• CGO toolchain (Xcode CLT on macOS; gcc on Linux)
• Linux GUI: sudo apt-get install libgl1-mesa-dev xorg-dev libwayland-dev libxkbcommon-dev (the Wayland headers are needed even on X11-only or headless systems; the daemon and CLI build without any of these)
• macOS app bundle: go install fyne.io/fyne/v2/cmd/fyne@latest
• Linux packages: go install github.com/goreleaser/nfpm/v2/cmd/nfpm@latest

Build commands

make build    # Build all binaries into bin/
make test     # Run unit tests
make app      # Package EverythingX.app (macOS only)
make deb      # Build .deb package (Linux only)
make rpm      # Build .rpm package (Linux only)
make clean    # Remove build artifacts

License

EverythingX is licensed under the Expat License (commonly known as the MIT License). See the LICENSE.txt file for more information.

Contact, feature requests, and bug reports

Create an issue on the Github Page