GainsisiOM

Gamma Indigo Sierra Search — by OM

A Voidtools Everything-inspired desktop file search tool for Windows. Single standalone Python script, no external dependencies, no install required.

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Requirements

• Windows (Win32 Shell context menu requires Windows; rest is cross-platform Python)
• Python 3.11+ (pure stdlib — no pip installs)
• No ArcGIS, no third-party packages

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Quick Start

python GainsisiOM.py

On first launch, GainsisiOM indexes D:\ and your user profile. Results appear live as you type.

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How It Works

GainsisiOM builds a SQLite database (file_index_search.db, stored in your user home directory) that records every file and folder under the indexed roots. The entire index is loaded into RAM at startup as compact FileRecord objects, making search nearly instantaneous regardless of index size.

• Index is persistent. Closing and reopening the app reloads the cached index immediately — no re-scan required.
• Auto-refresh runs every 5 minutes in the background (configurable via AUTO_REFRESH_SECONDS).
• 28 worker threads (NUM_THREADS) crawl the file system in parallel during indexing.
• Search results are capped at 10,000 items (MAX_RESULTS) for UI performance.

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GUI Overview

Search Bar (Row 1)

The search bar spans the full window width. Typing triggers a live search after a short debounce (120 ms). Press Enter to force an immediate search. The Down Arrow key moves focus to the results list.

Search history (up to 50 entries) is accessible via the dropdown arrow or Down Arrow in the empty search box.

Controls Row (Row 2)

Control	Description
Sort dropdown	Sort results by Date, Name, Size, Path, Ext, or Type
Desc checkbox	Toggle sort direction (descending by default)
Match Path checkbox	When checked, plain search terms match against the full path in addition to the filename
Syntax Help	Opens the search syntax reference popup
Browse & Index...	Pick any folder to index (rebuild, asks for confirmation)
Re-index Default	Full rebuild of D:\ and user profile (asks for confirmation)
Refresh Now	Incremental refresh — adds new files, removes deleted ones
Clear Index	Deletes all indexed data from the database (asks for confirmation)
Index Info	Shows record count, index version, build state, last indexed time, and indexed roots
Export CSV	Saves current search results to a UTF-8 CSV file

Results Treeview

Columns: Name · Ext · Type · Size · Date · Path

Action	Result
Double-click (Name/Ext/Type/Size/Date columns)	Opens the file or folder
Double-click (Path column)	Opens the containing folder in Explorer
Right-click	Context menu: Open, Copy Path, Shell Menu…
Enter	Opens the focused item
Ctrl+C	Copies the full path of the focused item to the clipboard

Status Bar

Displays current status, current Match mode (Path or Name), time until next auto-refresh, and the last refresh timestamp.

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Search Syntax

GainsisiOM implements a superset of Voidtools Everything search syntax.

Basic

Syntax	Behavior
word	Name (or full path when Match Path is on) contains "word"
"exact phrase"	Exact phrase match
word1 word2	AND — both required
word1 | word2	OR
!word	NOT
(group) or <group>	Grouping

Path & Location

Syntax	Behavior
path:folder	Full path contains "folder"
nopath:word	Filename only (ignores path)
parent:dir	Immediate parent directory matches "dir"
D:	File is on drive D:
\folder\	Path contains that segment

File Types

Syntax	Matches
ext:pdf;docx	Extension is pdf or docx (semicolon-separated)
audio:	mp3, wav, flac, aac, ogg, wma, m4a
doc:	pdf, doc, docx, xls, xlsx, ppt, pptx, txt, rtf
exe:	exe, msi, bat, cmd, ps1, com
pic:	jpg, png, gif, bmp, tif, webp, svg
video:	mp4, mkv, avi, mov, wmv, webm
zip:	zip, 7z, rar, tar, gz, bz2, xz
file:	Files only
folder:	Folders only

Size

Syntax	Behavior
size:>10mb	Larger than 10 MB
size:<500kb	Smaller than 500 KB
size:1mb..50mb	Between 1 MB and 50 MB

Size units: b, kb, mb, gb, tb. Named sizes: empty (0), tiny (<10 KB), small (<100 KB), medium (<1 MB), large (<16 MB), huge (≥16 MB).

Date Modified

Syntax	Behavior
dm:today	Modified today
dm:yesterday	Modified yesterday
dm:thisweek	Modified this calendar week
dm:thismonth	Modified this month
dm:thisyear	Modified this year
dm:>2025-01-01	Modified after a specific date
dm:2025-01-01..2025-12-31	Date range

Regex & Advanced

Syntax	Behavior
regex:pattern	Python regex match on full path (case-insensitive)
noregex:word	Literal text, no wildcard or regex interpretation
count:N	Limit results to N items

Wildcard Support

* matches any sequence of characters; ? matches any single character. Works in plain terms and in path:, nopath:, parent: values.

Combining

ext:pdf path:reports dm:thismonth size:>1mb
ext:pdf;docx !draft path:projects
regex:^\w:\\.+\.log$ size:>10mb

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Keyboard Shortcuts

Key	Action
Enter (search box)	Run search immediately
Down Arrow (search box)	Move focus to first result
Enter (results list)	Open focused item
Ctrl+C (results list)	Copy full path
Ctrl+U	Toggle Match Path
F1	Open Syntax Help
Escape	Cancel in-progress indexing

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Settings

Settings are saved automatically on close to %USERPROFILE%\gainsisiom_settings.json. Stored values:

• Last 50 search history entries
• Match Path on/off
• Window size and position

Window size is restored on next launch, clamped to a minimum of 900×480 pixels. Default size on first launch: 1400×750.

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Files

File	Description
GainsisiOM.py	Single-file application — everything lives here
%USERPROFILE%\file_index_search.db	SQLite index database (generated; safe to delete — forces full re-index)
%USERPROFILE%\gainsisiom_settings.json	User settings (search history, window geometry, Match Path state)

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Configuration Constants

These are at the top of GainsisiOM.py and can be adjusted:

Constant	Default	Description
NUM_THREADS	28	Worker threads for file system crawl
MAX_RESULTS	10,000	Maximum rows shown in results
BATCH_SIZE	500	SQLite insert batch size
SEARCH_DEBOUNCE	120 ms	Delay before search fires after keystroke
AUTO_REFRESH_SECONDS	300	Background refresh interval (seconds)
MAX_SEARCH_HISTORY	50	Number of search history entries kept

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Architecture Notes

• Single-file, pure stdlib. No splitting into modules unless explicitly requested.
• RAM-resident index. All FileRecord objects (compact __slots__ dataclasses) are loaded from SQLite into a Python list at startup. Search never touches disk.
• Pre-lowered fields. name_lower, fullpath_lower, ext_lower are computed once at load time, eliminating per-search .lower() calls.
• Fast path. Single-word queries with no operators, wildcards, or filters bypass the full AST evaluator and run as a raw in membership test — covers ~80% of typical searches.
• Non-blocking search. Filtering runs in a ThreadPoolExecutor(max_workers=1) thread; results are posted back to the main thread via a queue polled every 50 ms. The UI never blocks.
• Windows Shell context menu. Implemented via ctypes COM calls to IContextMenu/IContextMenu2/IContextMenu3 — no pywin32 required.
• SQLite WAL mode. Indexing and reading run concurrently without locking conflicts.