Best (Bleeding Edge Search Tool) is a graphical tool that searches through your indexed information. Best does not query the index directly; it passes the search terms to the Beagle daemon, which sends any matches back to Best. Best then renders the results and allows you to perform actions on the matching objects.

To open Best in KDE, click ‘K Menu’+‘System’+‘ File System’+‘Beagle Search’. In GNOME, click ‘Applications’+‘System’+‘File System’+‘Beagle Search’.

Figure 14.1. Beagle Search

To use Best, simply type your search text in the entry box at the top then press Enter or click ‘Find’. Best queries your indexed files and returns the results.

You can use the results list to open a file, mail a file, send an instant message, replay to a file, forward a file, or display a file in your file manager. The options available for each file depend on its type.

You can also use ‘Anywhere’ to limit your search to files in a specific location, such as your address book or Web pages, or to display only a specific type of file in your results list.

Beagle has a command line tool you can use to search your Beagle index. To use this tool, enter the following command in a terminal window:

beagle-query search

Replace search with the text to find and the beagle-query tool returns results. You can use wild cards with this command.

Use beagle-query --verbose search to display detailed information about the search results.