triglyphd

D-Bus daemon for system-wide trigram search

Provides instant file search for desktop applications through triglyph trigram indexing.

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Features

• D-Bus integration: org.freedesktop.Triglyph1 on session bus
• File manager ready: Designed for Nautilus/COSMIC Files content search
• Zero-RSS indexing: Uses triglyph's mmap-based indices
• Background indexing: Non-blocking index builds
• CLI interface: One-shot commands for scripting

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Installation

cargo build --release
sudo install -Dm755 target/release/triglyphd /usr/local/bin/triglyphd

# D-Bus activation (optional - starts daemon on first call)
sudo install -Dm644 org.freedesktop.Triglyph1.service \
    /usr/share/dbus-1/services/org.freedesktop.Triglyph1.service

# Systemd user service (optional - starts at login)
install -Dm644 triglyphd.service ~/.config/systemd/user/triglyphd.service
systemctl --user daemon-reload
systemctl --user enable --now triglyphd

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D-Bus Interface

Service: org.freedesktop.Triglyph1 Object: /org/freedesktop/Triglyph1

Methods

Method	Signature	Description
Index(path)	s -> (bs)	Index a directory. Returns (success, message)
Search(query)	s -> a(stts)	Search all indices. Returns [(path, size, mtime, root)]
SearchIn(path, query)	ss -> a(stts)	Search specific index
Status(path)	s -> (stss)	Get index status: (path, count, time, state)
List()	-> a(stss)	List all indices
Remove(path)	s -> (bs)	Remove an index
Cancel()	-> (bs)	Cancel current indexing

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Usage

From Shell

# Call via dbus-send
dbus-send --session --print-reply --dest=org.freedesktop.Triglyph1 \
    /org/freedesktop/Triglyph1 org.freedesktop.Triglyph1.Index \
    string:"/home/user/code"

# Or via busctl
busctl --user call org.freedesktop.Triglyph1 /org/freedesktop/Triglyph1 \
    org.freedesktop.Triglyph1 Search s "impl Iterator"

From GLib (Python)

from gi.repository import Gio

bus = Gio.bus_get_sync(Gio.BusType.SESSION)
proxy = Gio.DBusProxy.new_sync(
    bus, 0, None,
    "org.freedesktop.Triglyph1",
    "/org/freedesktop/Triglyph1",
    "org.freedesktop.Triglyph1",
    None
)

# Search
results = proxy.Search("(s)", "impl Iterator")
for path, size, mtime, root in results:
    print(f"{path} ({size} bytes)")

# Index
success, msg = proxy.Index("(s)", "/home/user/code")
print(msg)

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CLI Commands

# Run as daemon (default)
triglyphd

# One-shot commands
triglyphd index ~/code/myproject
triglyphd search "impl Iterator"
triglyphd search "foo bar" --in ~/code/myproject
triglyphd list
triglyphd status ~/code/myproject
triglyphd remove ~/code/myproject

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File Manager Integration

The daemon is designed for file manager search provider integration:

Integration Point	Description
Search Provider	Implement org.gnome.Shell.SearchProvider2 that delegates to triglyphd
Context Menu	Add "Index with Triglyph" action
Search Bar	Integrate with file manager search for content-based results

COSMIC Files Integration

filearchy includes native triglyph integration:

1. Right-click folder → "Enable Fast Search"
2. Background indexing via triglyphd
3. Sub-10ms search results

---

Index Storage

Indices are stored in ~/.local/share/triglyph/<hash>/:

~/.local/share/triglyph/
├── <hash1>/
│   ├── index.tri           # Trigram posting lists
│   ├── index.tri.presence  # Presence bitset
│   ├── index.files.str     # Path string table
│   ├── index.files.dir     # File metadata directory
│   └── meta.json           # Index metadata
├── <hash2>/
│   └── ...

Each indexed directory gets a unique hash based on its canonical path.

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Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│           Desktop Applications                   │
│    (Nautilus, COSMIC Files, custom tools)       │
└──────────────────────┬──────────────────────────┘
                       │ D-Bus IPC
                       ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                  triglyphd                       │
│  ┌───────────┐  ┌───────────┐  ┌───────────┐   │
│  │ Index Mgr │  │ Query Eng │  │ CLI       │   │
│  └─────┬─────┘  └─────┬─────┘  └───────────┘   │
│        │              │                         │
│        └──────┬───────┘                         │
│               ▼                                 │
│        ┌──────────────┐                         │
│        │   triglyph   │                         │
│        │   (library)  │                         │
│        └──────────────┘                         │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                       │
                       ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│              ~/.local/share/triglyph/           │
│                   (mmap'd)                      │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

---

Performance

Operation	Latency
Index 10K files	~2s
Index 100K files	~15s
Search (cached)	<10ms
Search (cold)	~50ms

Performance scales with the triglyph library's zero-RSS architecture.

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Configuration

Environment variables:

Variable	Default	Description
TRIGLYPH_DATA_DIR	~/.local/share/triglyph	Index storage location
TRIGLYPH_LOG_LEVEL	info	Logging verbosity

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Security

• Indices are user-private (0700 permissions)
• No root privileges required
• Sandboxed file access (only indexes paths you specify)
• D-Bus policy restricts access to session bus

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License

MIT

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See Also

• triglyph - The underlying trigram index library
• filearchy - COSMIC Files fork with integrated trigram search

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