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NATS - Plain Text File Scanner

NATS is a basic plain text file scanner tool that allows you to search for keywords within text files. It provides various search options and can be used in both command-line and GUI versions available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

License Information

  • NATS: MIT License, © 2020 Luke Liukonen
  • System.Data.OLEDB: MIT License, © Microsoft Corp - Used for Windows Index Scan
  • System.Data.Sqllite.Core: Public Domain, © D. Richard Hipp - Used for NATS Index Backend Database
  • Farmhash.Sharp: MIT License, © 2015 Nick Babcock and © 2014 Google, Inc. - Used for generating hash values for Indexes
  • Material.IO Apache License: Apache License 2.0 - Icon for Mac and Windows provided by material.io

Usage (command line)

NATS -P path -K keyword [Search Type] [options]

Required Fields

  • -K [keyword]: Keyword text to search for
  • -P [path]: Directory path to search through

Search Types

Param Meaning
-T[X] Threading: Not setting the value indicates a single-thread search. -T implements multithreaded scanning, where X is the number of threads. If not set, a single thread is used. If [X] is empty, it defaults to 4 threads.
-I Index: Generates or refreshes a NATS SQLite DB based on the given directory. It searches the index for matching keywords in files and scans those files for matching phrases.
-L Limited: Performs the same search as Index but does not generate or refresh the index.
-B Build: Indexes a directory only. A keyword needs to be passed but is not used in the indexing process. The indexing defaults to a hardcoded set of file types that are whitelisted, blacklisted, and utilize "Smart Search" to scan the files. Note: There is a chance that indexing may not always pick up text files.
-W Windows Index: Uses the Windows built-in indexing engine to find files. Indexing must be turned on and set in the folder you want to search through for this option to work.

Options

Param Meaning
-S Smart Search: Uses the byte order mark at the start of the file to assist in filtering out non-text files. This process is not 100% accurate but is used for index-based searches.
-R RAM: Loads files under 10MB into RAM for comparison. This theoretically reduces IO spikes on the system process during non-indexed searches. Does not work with the -L command.
-O[path] Output: Outputs the command to the specified path file.
-D [ext] Disapproved Extensions: Filters out file extensions not to scan. Multiple extensions should be delimited with the "
-A [ext] Approved Extensions: The reverse of the disapproved extension, which is disabled if -A is used. Only searches files with the specified extension.
-M MultiLine: By default, NATS indicates if the file contains the selected keyword. Adding the M keyword during single or multithreaded scan will also indicate the lines in the file where the keyword appears (Note: this search takes longer as it needs to read through the entire file for keywords).
-H Help: Ignores all other inputs and displays the help file.

Other

Design patterns or technologies explored:

  • Singleton
  • Factory Pattern
  • Parallel Library
  • SQLite DB
  • String Hashing
  • Cocoa (Mac OS) Development
  • XCode
  • GTK#
  • .NET Standard
  • Cross-Platform Development