arcsearch

short for "archive search"

My command line querying utility for video game archives!

🦀 written in Rust

What does arcsearch do?

Arcsearch allows you to query your game collection with ease! Some features include:

• Regular expression support
• Displays game titles without their codes such as (USA, Europe), [!], and (Disk 2)
• Displays game systems with distinct, customizable names

What is a valid video game archive?

A valid archive file system structure should follow these general rules:

• Contains a config.yaml in the archive root (see: Customization)
• Immediate root subdirectories represent individual game systems
• Files in system directories represent individual games
  • These files can either be normal files or directories

Here is an example of a valid archive structure:

/game/archive/root
├── ds
│   ├── game-1.nds
│   ├── game-2.nds
│   └── game-3.nds
├── wii
│   ├── game-1-dir
│   │   └── game-1.wbfs
│   └── game-2-dir
│       └── game-2.wbfs
└── config.yaml

Tip

While it is possible to place system directories multiple levels below the archive root (such as in root/systems/consoles/ps2), I do not recommend nesting system directories. This may generate undesirable results.

Building

To manually build the project, you must first install Rust.

Once you have Rust installed, run the following commands:

git clone https://github.com/massivebird/arcsearch
cd arcsearch
cargo run # runs unoptimized build

Adding arcsearch to your PATH

If you want to add arcsearch to your PATH, I recommend building it in release mode for better optimization.

cd arcsearch
# build release mode
cargo build --release
# add arcsearch to your PATH
ln -rs ./target/release/arcsearch <dir-in-PATH>/arcsearch
# run arcsearch
arcsearch

Usage

Basic arcsearch syntax is as follows:

arcsearch <query>

For more information, run arcsearch --help.

Locating your archive

To find your archive, arcsearch defaults to reading the environment variable VG_ARCHIVE.

You can also provide this path from the command line:

arcsearch --archive-path /path/to/archive "some query"

Customization

Arcsearch looks for a config.yaml file in the root of your archive. This configuration file tells arcsearch where and how to look for games!

For a quickstart on YAML syntax, click here.

Here is an example configuration:

# config.yaml
systems:
  ds: # system "label" — call it whatever you want!
    display_name: "DS"
    color: [135,215,255]
    path: "ds" # path relative to archive root
    games_are_directories: false # are games stored as directories?
  snes:
    display_name: "SNES"
    color: [95,0,255]
    path: "snes"
    games_are_directories: false
  wii:
    display_name: "WII"
    color: [0,215,255]
    path: "wbfs"
    games_are_directories: true

Other arcosystem projects

Arcsearch belongs to a family of projects called the arcosystem!

Check out some other arcosystem projects:

• arcstat: game archive stats
• arcconfig: backbone of the arcosystem