narl-workspace/docs/wiki/Files-and-Search.md

Files and search

Files

A file is a node like a document, only with bytes instead of text. It sits in a folder beside the notes about it, or belongs to a document, shows its size in the list, and Enter opens it.

A document's own files are the ones pasted or dropped into it while writing, and the ones :upload puts in while reading it. They move, seal, go to the trash and come back with the document. A document with files says +2 in the list; za folds them open under it, and :info files lists them too. With the cursor among them, p drops files picked up elsewhere in.

Put files in:

• drop them onto the list;
• :upload picks files for the folder you are in, or for the document you are reading;
• :import uploads a whole folder, and :import zip a zip (see Not losing things);
• copy them in over the SFTP mount.

Each upload is written to disk as it arrives, never held in memory, so the only limit is WORKSPACE_MAX_UPLOAD_MB (1024 by default) per request.

What opens in place

• images, video and audio;
• PDFs, in the browser's own viewer;
• text and source code of any kind, with line numbers, up to the first 256 KiB;
• markdown, rendered, with :source to see it as written;
• CSV and TSV, as a table of the first 500 rows;
• certificates, keys and keystores (.pem, .crt, .cer, .der, .csr, .key, .p8, .p12, .pfx), read on the server.

A certificate shows its subject, issuer, validity, key, names, usage and fingerprints, and which key belongs to which certificate. A .p12 or an encrypted key asks for its password, which opens it for that one look and is not stored. Nothing of a private key is sent back but its algorithm and size.

Anything else is a download: :export fetches the file under the cursor, and gx opens it in a browser tab of its own. Files are renamed with :name, moved like documents, and deleted into the trash with x.

Uploads are only ever served as types that cannot run in the browser. An HTML file or an SVG, for example, downloads instead of opening.

Search

/ searches the space you are in; Tab on the line takes the search to every space, and back (:search! does the same from the command line).

Results appear as you type, ranked by relevance, each with the space and folder it is in. Ctrl-N / Ctrl-P walk them without leaving the line, and Enter opens the one lit. Afterwards n and N open the next and previous result beside the list, and :noh clears the search.

Cards are searched too, by their title, description and checklist steps. They are listed after the documents, under cards, with the board and list each is on. Enter on one turns it over on its board; n and N only light it up. Notes on the scratchpad come last, under notes, whatever space is searched; Enter lowers the scratchpad at the note.

Each word you type matches the start of a word, so inge finds "ingest". All the words must be there. Punctuation is ignored, so a search of nothing else finds nothing.

Inside files

A search reads the text files in the tree as well as the documents. A file counts as text by its type, or when its first 8 KiB read as UTF-8 with no NUL byte, which covers .log files and Makefiles. The first 256 KiB of each is indexed, the same part the viewer shows. A file found by its text shows the words around the match under its name, with the words that matched lit.

The text is read when a file arrives, by upload, import or the SFTP mount, again when its bytes change, and at start for any file still missing it. PDFs, office documents and images are not read.

A sealed file is never indexed; see The vault. Sealing a file drops its text in the same step, and decrypting it reads it again.