SUMMARY By default cannot be used with Elisa for music files outside $HOME: Baloo file indexer does not follow symlinks by default. Also KCM for Baloo does not seem to have a GUI for the user to easily include paths and by default indexes only $HOME. That needlessly forces Elisa to use the slower file indexer in case it is pointed to a the folder which is outside of $HOME (see bug #407918 - Does not find music on other partition (ext4 or NTFS) even when added to search paths). STEPS TO REPRODUCE 1. Have your music folder on a different partition. 2. Either use a symlink or point Elisa directly to it. OBSERVED RESULT No music in Elisa, unless you use Elisa 20.04 or (maybe) 19.12.1. And if you use a version with the fix to use the old slower file indexer, you get to use the old slower file indexer instead of Baloo. EXPECTED RESULT It just works with Baloo indexer without any user interaction. For that either the symbolic link scenario would work or at least Baloo asks whether to include the path the symbolic link points to in the indexing. I believe there has been reasons why Baloo does not follow symbolic links, however using symbolic links for a quick reference to folders outside of $HOME is quite an usual use case, I'd say. Or Elisa would add the folder it is pointed to automatically to Baloo as well, maybe after asking the user. Or there would at least be a GUI to add folders with Baloo KCM Elisa could point users, too, if it detects such a scenario. Or Elisa stops to use Baloo for its use case, in case Baloo was not meant to work in the way Elisa uses it. The current situation at least is not very intuitive as the user will either have to edit ~/.config/baloofilerc or use balooctl config to add the folder. This works, but it is totally non obvious for the user. SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS Linux/KDE Plasma: Debian Sid KDE Plasma Version: 5.14 still in Debian Sid KDE Frameworks Version: 5.62 Qt Version: 5.12.5
All reasonable enough UI suggestions.
I just tested it more closely on adding some other folders outside of $HOME to Baloo indexing, it cannot be done with balooctl config: % LANG=en balooctl config set The following configuration options may be modified: hidden Controls if Baloo indexes hidden files and folders contentIndexing Controls if Baloo indexes file content balooctl does not give more options than the KCM. So the user really has to edit ~/.config/baloofilerc in order to use Elisa with Baloo file indexer on a folder outside of $HOME.
(In reply to Martin Steigerwald from comment #2) > I just tested it more closely on adding some other folders outside of $HOME > to Baloo indexing, it cannot be done with balooctl config: > > % LANG=en balooctl config set > The following configuration options may be modified: > > hidden Controls if Baloo indexes hidden files and folders > contentIndexing Controls if Baloo indexes file content > > balooctl does not give more options than the KCM. > > So the user really has to edit ~/.config/baloofilerc in order to use Elisa > with Baloo file indexer on a folder outside of $HOME. $> balooctl config add The following configuration options may be modified: includeFolders The list of folders which Baloo indexes excludeFolders The list of folders which Baloo will never index excludeFilters The list of filters which are used to exclude files excludeMimetypes The list of mimetypes which are used to exclude files
Created attachment 146210 [details] System Settings > Search [Screenshot of 2022/02]
(In reply to Stefan Brüns from comment #3) > $> balooctl config add > The following configuration options may be modified: > > includeFolders The list of folders which Baloo indexes > excludeFolders The list of folders which Baloo will never index > excludeFilters The list of filters which are used to exclude files > excludeMimetypes The list of mimetypes which are used to exclude files Somewhere along the line, the functionality has been added to the GUI: https://bugs.kde.org/attachment.cgi?id=146210 ... Screenshot from a Fedora system, set up to index some extra space.
Unfortunately, this still doesn't help with symlinks though. I have a setup similar to this: - /home/david is indexed - /mnt/media/david is indexed - Music directory in Elisa is set to /home/david/Musik - /home/david/Musik --> /mnt/media/david/Musik - /mnt/media/david/Musik/other --> /mnt/media/david/other-music But the music from /mnt/media/david/other-music does not appear in Elisa. Even if I change the music directory in Elisa to /mnt/media/david/Musik, it doesn't work. But that might be because Elisa considers the two directories to be the same. I'm not sure.
Fedora configures Baloo to (only) index the music, pictures, movies, documents directories by default: https://src.fedoraproject.org/rpms/kf5-baloo/blob/f37/f/baloo-5.67.0-baloofile_config.patch Maybe this would be a good default config for everyone?
(In reply to Dennis Schridde from comment #7) > Maybe this would be a good default config for everyone? Fedora users, I'd hope and suspect, have got used to Fedora's behaviour. However it introduces a bundle of eccentricities as Dolphin "falls back" to a more basic search (a "there and then" recursive scan down into your folders) if you move the an unindexed folder in Dolphin and then do a "From Here" search - and as in Fedora your $HOME is not indexed, you will normally end up with the slower/basic search. You can go down quite a rabbit hole if you want to work out whether a Dolphin search makes use of baloo and when not https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=424871#c4 gives a breakdown of the complications (symlinks have their own summary in bug 447119)