Needle in a Haystack
What Next?
In this tutorial you have learned why and how to use a tool that automatically scans as many ODF or text files you want, to find any given string. Cool, but why stop here?
The first thing you can do is improve odfgrep
as you please. To work on non-writeable media, for example, you can modify it to create a temporary, complete copy of all the folders to examine in another folder. Alternatively, you can replace the test in Listing 1 (line 11) with another on the basis of the file
command: It would be more complicated, but it would recognize ODF files no matter what their extension.
Another fun and productive line of work is using odfgrep
as a model to build similar tools. A good candidate would be an odfdiff
script that prints out the differences between two ODF documents.
The most important take-home lesson, however, is this: ODF is a format for sophisticated text documents, presentations, and spreadsheets that is very easy to work with and process in very efficient ways. For more proof of this, visit my little "ODF scripting" collection [5], and if you know about other scripts like those, or write new ones, please let me know!
Infos
- "Tutorials – Recoll" by Marco Fioretti, Linux Pro Magazine, issue 212, July 2018, pg. 84: http://www.linuxpromagazine.com/Issues/2018/212/Tutorials-Recoll
- odt2txt: https://github.com/dstosberg/odt2txt
- Code for this article: ftp://linux-magazine.com/pub/listings/linux-magazine.com/213/
- SUID: http://www.linuxnix.com/suid-set-suid-linuxunix/
- ODF scripting: http://freesoftware.zona-m.net/tag/odf-scripting
« Previous 1 2 3
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Direct Download
Read full article as PDF:
Price $2.95
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Find SysAdmin Jobs
News
-
LibreOffice 7.5 has Arrived and is Loaded with New Features and Improvements
The favorite office suite of the Linux community has a new release that includes some visual refreshing and new features across all modules.
-
The Next Major Release of Elementary OS Has Arrived
It's been over a year since the developers of elementary OS released version 6.1 (Jólnir) but they've finally made their latest release (Horus) available with a renewed focus on the user.
-
KDE Plasma 5.27 Beta Is Ready for Testing
The latest beta iteration of the KDE Plasma desktop is now available and includes some important additions and fixes.
-
Netrunner OS 23 Is Now Available
The latest version of this Linux distribution is now based on Debian Bullseye and is ready for installation and finally hits the KDE 5.20 branch of the desktop.
-
New Linux Distribution Built for Gamers
With a Gnome desktop that offers different layouts and a custom kernel, PikaOS is a great option for gamers of all types.
-
System76 Beefs Up Popular Pangolin Laptop
The darling of open-source-powered laptops and desktops will soon drop a new AMD Ryzen 7-powered version of their popular Pangolin laptop.
-
Nobara Project Is a Modified Version of Fedora with User-Friendly Fixes
If you're looking for a version of Fedora that includes third-party and proprietary packages, look no further than the Nobara Project.
-
Gnome 44 Now Has a Release Date
Gnome 44 will be officially released on March 22, 2023.
-
Nitrux 2.6 Available with Kernel 6.1 and a Major Change
The developers of Nitrux have officially released version 2.6 of their Linux distribution with plenty of new features to excite users.
-
Vanilla OS Initial Release Is Now Available
A stock GNOME experience with on-demand immutability finally sees its first production release.