Zeitgeist starts logging from the time its installed. It can not dig into the past.
However we have a workaround to retrieve the history out of a folder and inform Zeitgeist about it. Simply download the following script
then use it like this:
python history.py /path/to/folder
/path/to/folder being the folder you want to pull history out of example: /home/seif/Documents
also for those devs who love emacs or vim
please install the emacs plugin and vim plugin
Wouldn’t it be better if the script used find’s -print0 feature, and split on NULLs () instead? At least on ext based FS’es it is possible for files to have names containing a newline, e.g.:
$> echo “test” > ‘whoops
a daisy’;
$> ls
whoops?a daisy
$> cat ‘whoops
a daisy’;
test
Hi Seif,
Thanks for the very fast feedback; I’m the guy who requested this to komputes at the Montreal Gnome Summit.
I have an additional request/suggestion, and for this, some additional context might be worthwhile. Here it is:
Under Windows 7 at work, one of my favourite features is that I can do a search in my whole workspace with one keypress: since Windows Desktop Search is the engine powering the “quick search” box in the start menu, I can just press the Win/Meta key, type ibm, and find the IBM contract proposal I was working on.
Shell is very similar in its “hit meta key, type something, get things done” approach, but (sorry to add “unfortunately” here) that’s not a search engine we have here then, that’s a journaling engine. So unless I worked on it recently, typing ibm might not reveal that proposal I was expecting to quickly find.
And my “mistake” is pretty common I think: typing stuff under Activities looks very much like searching, except when it’s not: if I type fox in Activities, what happens?
– firefox appears first in the search results, as an “Application”
– but my report on fox hunting in Nebraska lying in ~/Documents doesn’t (no recent “Document” Zeitgeist entry)
This is I think counter-intuitive. Documents accessed recently should of course be prioritised, but my data is my data, I know I have it and want to access it easily even if it was untouched for the last few days/weeks/months.
So that’s where your script is great for me, because it lets your journaling engine act like a search engine.
Then my idea/request would be: what about running this script against XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR at Zeitgeist first startup by default? I still have to test it, but if Zeitgeist can handle the load, that would be a cool workaround for the lack of a Beagle-like “real search” in Activities.
Thanks again for your awesome work! Waiting for your feedback.
If you touch a file after Zeitgeist is installed Zeitgeist will always know about it even if its 10 years later.
With the new “Vala” port of Zeitgeist we will be able to handle the load easily. However again we will not index the content of your documents. We are not an indexer but rather a very pimped up recently used that never forgets
I recommend you use Tracker for searching
Hi,
i took the liberty to make the vim plugin easier to install via Pathogen. The repo is in https://github.com/fmoralesc/vim-zeitgeist
Thanks for the great work!
THANK YOU!!! I so appreciate this site.This is news I need to know.
[...] Zeitgeist history retrieval script and additional loggers (seilo.geekyogre.com) [...]
hi,
i wrote here the corret procedure for install it from git.
http://marcofalchi.blogspot.com/2011/10/how-to-install-zeitgeist-extensions-for.html
thanks