# General form The input is the area at the bottom of the focused panel, in which you can type a filter or a command. Its parts are * a filtering pattern * a verb invocation, starting with a space or a colon (`:`) Both parts are optional. # The filtering pattern A search pattern is made of 1 to 3 parts separated by the `/` character but you rarely need the two `/`. The syntax is globally [/] The mode is either nothing (fuzzy path), just a slash (regex name) or some letters followed by a slash. The search mode combines * the search type: fuzzy, regex, exact, tokens * the search object: file name, file path, file content mode | example query | example match | explanation -|-|-|- fuzzy path | `abc` or `p/abc` | `a/bac.txt` | search for "abc" in a fuzzy way in sub-paths from current tree root fuzzy name | `n/abc` or `nf/abc` | `abac.txt` | search for "abc" in a fuzzy way in filenames tokens name | `nt/ab,cd` | `dcdAbac.txt` | search for the "ab" and "cd" tokens, in whatever order (case and diacritics insensitive) exact name | `e/Bac` or `en/Bac` | `ABac.txt` | search for the string "Bac" in filenames regex name | `/[yz]{3}` or `/[yz]{3}/` | `fuzzy.rs` | search for the regular expression `[yz]{3}` in filenames regex name | `/(json|xml)$/i` | `thing.XML` | find files whose name ends in `json` or `xml`, case insensitive regex name | `/abc/i` | `aBc.txt` | search for the regular expression `abc` with flag `i` in filenames exact path | `ep/te\/d` or `pe/te\/d/` | `website/docs` | search for "te/d" in sub-paths from current tree root regex path | `rp/\\d{3}.*txt` | `dir/a256/abc.txt` | search for the `\d{3}.*txt` regex in sub-paths from current tree root tokens path | `t/ab,cd` | `DCD/a256/abc.txt` | search for the "ab" and "cd" tokens in sub-paths from current tree root exact content | `c/mask` or `c/mask/` | `umask = "1.0"` | search for the "mask" string in file contents regex content | `rc/[abc]{5}/i` | `bAAAc` | search with a regular expression in file contents - `i` making it case insensitive regex content | `cr/\\bzh\\b` | `"zh":{` | search a word with a regular expression in file contents It's also possible to [redefine those mode mappings](../conf_file/#search-modes). To escape characters (for example the space, colon or slash) in the pattern, use a `\` (an antislash is `\\`). # Combining filtering patterns Patterns can be combined with the `!` (not), `&` (and) and `|` (or) operators, and parentheses if necessary. You can for example display non `json` files containing either `isize` or `i32` with !/json$/&(c/isize/|c/i32/) ## Subtleties The characters you use as operators and the parenthesis can be useful in patterns too, either because you want to search for them in fuzzy patterns or in file contents, or because you write non trivial regular expressions. Most often you'll just type what feels natural and broot will select the interpretation which makes sense but you might be interested in a few rules: * parenthesis and operators in the second pattern part (parts being separated by `/`) are part of the pattern, which explains why `/(json|xml)` is interpreted as a regular expression. If you want to do a fuzzy search for a `|` in the name of your files, you'll need to either escape it as `\|` or to have an explicit pattern mode : `nf/a|b` because `a|b` would search for files whose name contains either `a` or `b`. And to ensure an operator or closing parenthesis isn't interpreted as part of your pattern, close it with a `/`. * broot interprets the left operand before the right one and doesn't interpret the second one if it's not necessary. So if you want to search your whole disk for json files containing `abcd`, it will be faster to use `/json$/&c/abcd` rather than `c/abcd/&/json$/` which would look at the file name only after having scanned the content. # The verb invocation The verb invocation is : or where arguments can be empty, depending on the verb's behaviour and invocation pattern. Verbs are detailed in the [Verbs & Commands](verbs.md) chapter. # Examples ## A Fuzzy Path search: `re` ![fuzzy](img/20210511-fuzzy-re.png) ## A regular expression based search: `/R` ![fuzzy](img/20210511-regex.png) ## A search followed by a command without arguments: `re rm` (which is equivalent to `re:rm`) This is very natural: You use the search to select your element and you don't need to remove it before typing the command. ![fuzzy](img/20200526-input-fuzzy-rm.png) ## A search followed by a command taking an argument: `re mv ../regex.rs` ![fuzzy](img/20200526-input-fuzzy-mv.png) ## A full text search In this case with an escaped space: `c/two\ p` ![content search](img/20210511-twop.png) ## A regular expression based full text search ![content regex search](img/20201002-cr-search.png) ## A complex composite search Here we search for `"carg"` both in file names and file contents, and we exclude `"lock"` files: `!lock&(carg|c/carg/)` ![complex composite](img/20200620-complex-composite.png) note: the `/` at the end of `c/carg/` is necessary to tell broot that the following parenthesis isn't part of the pattern.