File search results in rofi

[CapelaGames]

Hi,
I'm trying to get a file search working, and feeding those results to rofi.

I am currently using a python script however I'm new to python, (C developer jumping into the deep end). I would love some help on what I am doing wrong.

I tried looking up documentation and doing some searches.

I'm using rofi -show find -modi find:~/.local/share/rofi/finder.py to run the script below, it however, doesn't show any results in rofi. I tried printing rofi_input like this print(rofi_input) , which shows results in rofi, but doesn't allow me to open any file.

#!/usr/bin/env python3

import subprocess

if __name__ == '__main__':
    # Use fd to get a list of files and directories, and split them into a list
    files = subprocess.run(['fd'], encoding='utf-8', capture_output=True).stdout.splitlines()

    # Set the title for the Rofi window
    title = 'Find Files'

    # Construct the rofi command using dmenu mode, fuzzy search (-i), and the provided title
    rofi_command = ['rofi', '-dmenu', '-i', '-p', title]

    # Join the list of files into a single string, separated by newline characters
    rofi_input = '\n'.join(file for file in files)

    # Run Rofi with the constructed command and the file list as input
    cp = subprocess.run(rofi_command, input=rofi_input,encoding='utf-8', capture_output=True)

    
    # If an item was selected in Rofi
    if cp.returncode == 0:
        cp.check_returncode()

        selected_file = cp.stdout.strip()

        # Use xdg-open to open the selected file with the default associated application
        xdg_command = ['xdg-open', selected_file]
        subprocess.run(xdg_command, encoding='utf-8', capture_output=True)

Thank you for any help!

[DaveDavenport]

Why not use the build in file-browser? rofi -show filebrowser -modes filebrowser

[DaveDavenport]

Btw.. you are mixing up rofi in dmenu emulation mode and rofi's script mode.
This will never work.

If you want to make a script, I suggest you read the rofi-script manpage, if you want to make a dmenu script, I recommend the many online tutorials and the rofi-dmenu manual page.

[CapelaGames]

Why not use the build in file-browser?

I want to do a fuzzy search on all my files, which fd allows. As far as I understand, file-browser only allows searching within the directory your in.

Btw.. you are mixing up rofi in dmenu emulation mode and rofi's script mode.

Thanks so much, that's a huge help, I will look into this.

I will leave this unanswered for now and reply with my solution later.

[DaveDavenport]

In git there is recursivebrowser it searches (nicely async) in all files in a directory.

[CapelaGames]

Oh nice, I will check that out. Thank you for taking time to help me.

[CapelaGames]

I'm not sure if there is an easier way to do this but this is how I got it working.
(replace username with your username, I couldn't seem to get ~ working)
Use this to run the following script ./finder.py

#!/usr/bin/env python3

import subprocess
import shlex

if __name__ == '__main__':

    # arg1 = sys.argv[1]
    # Use fd to get a list of files and directories, and split them into a list
    files = subprocess.run(shlex.split("fd . /home/username"), encoding='utf-8', capture_output=True).stdout.splitlines()

    # Set the title for the Rofi window
    title = 'Find Files'

    # Construct the rofi command using dmenu 
    rofi_command = ['rofi', '-dmenu', '-i', '-p', title]

    # Join the list of files into a single string, separated by newline characters
    rofi_input = '\n'.join(file for file in files)

    # Run Rofi with the constructed command and the file list as input
    cp = subprocess.run(rofi_command, input=rofi_input,encoding='utf-8', capture_output=True)  

    # If an item was selected in Rofi
    if cp.returncode == 0:
        cp.check_returncode()

        selected_file = cp.stdout.strip()

        # Use xdg-open to open the selected file with the default associated application
        xdg_command = ['xdg-open', selected_file]
        subprocess.run(xdg_command, encoding='utf-8', capture_output=True)