Desktop Search is a graphical tool that searches through your indexed information. Desktop Search does not query the index directly. It passes the search terms to the Beagle daemon, which sends any matches back to the tool. The search tool then renders the results and allows you to perform actions on the matching objects. To start Desktop Search, press Alt-F2 and enter beagle-search.

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

Figure 5.1. Beagle Search

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

You can also use items in Search 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 beagle-query search in a terminal window.

Replace search with the text to find. 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.

Figure 5.2. Using the beagle-query Command