Skip to main content

​
Overview

copyparty provides powerful search capabilities: find files by name/path, size, date, content hash, or metadata tags like artist and title.

​
File Search by Content

Find duplicate files by dropping them into the browser.

​
How It Works

  1. Drag files into the Search dropzone (or toggle [🔎] on mobile)
  2. Files are hashed client-side
  3. Hash sent to server
  4. Server checks database for matching content
  5. Results show where identical files exist
Requires -e2dsa to index file hashes. Files that match go into [ok], unknown files into [ng].
Search by file identifier (wark/checksum) directly: 
raw: w = kFpDiztbZc8Z1Lzi
Enter this in the [🔎] Search tab → raw field. Search by file attributes and media tags.

​
Enable Indexing

# Enable file indexing and tag scanning
copyparty -e2dsa -e2ts

[global]
  e2dsa  # index all files (size, date, hash)
  e2ts   # index audio/video tags

​
Search Interface

Click [🔎] in the top navigation to open the search tab.

​
Search Fields

Path
  • Space-separated AND search
  • - prefix to negate (exclude)
  • Example: music shibayan -bossa
    • ✅ Matches: /music/shibayan/album/song.mp3
    • ❌ Rejects: /music/shibayan/bossa-nova/track.flac
Name
  • Search filename only (not full path)
  • Example: demetori styx
Size
  • Range: 10m-100m (10-100 MiB)
  • Min: >5g or 5g-
  • Max: <1k or -1k
  • Suffixes: b, k, m, g
Date
  • Range: 2023-01-01-2023-12-31
  • After: >2023-06-01 or 2023-06-01-
  • Before: <2023-01-01 or -2023-01-01

​
Tag Search Examples

​
Find Specific Artist

artist: demetori

​
Find Songs in BPM Range

.bpm: 170-180

​
Find Long Songs

.dur: 600-
(Duration 600+ seconds = 10+ minutes)

​
Complex Tag Query

artist: *sound* -artist: *souledge*
genre: trance
.bpm: 138-142
Finds:
  • Artist contains “sound” but not “souledge”
  • Genre is trance
  • BPM between 138-142

​
Raw SQL: Exclude Collabs

tags like *artist1* and tags like *artist2*
and (not tags like *artist1* or not tags like *artist2*)

​
Search Configuration

​
Control What’s Searchable

[global]
  # Exclude patterns from search results
  srch-excl: password|logs/[0-9]|backup
Hidden files (.filename) require special permission: 
[/music]
  /mnt/music
  accs:
    r.: alice  # alice can see dotfiles
  flags:
    dotsrch    # dotfiles appear in search results
Without dotsrch, dotfiles are excluded from search even if user has . permission. Search behavior can differ per volume: 
[/public]
  /srv/public
  flags:
    e2dsa      # index everything
    
[/private]
  /srv/private  
  flags:
    d2d        # disable all indexing
    
[/media]
  /srv/media
  flags:
    e2d        # index files
    d2t        # but not tags

​
Search Performance

​
Indexing Options

copyparty -e2dsa -e2ts
  • e2dsa: Index all files (writable + readonly)
  • e2ts: Scan tags in all files without tags
  • Best search performance
  • Slow initial startup

​
Exclude from Indexing

[/downloads]
  /mnt/downloads
  flags:
    noidx: '\.tmp$|\.part$'  # skip temporary files
    nohash: '\.iso$'          # hash-less indexing for ISOs

​
Database Location

Searches query the up2k.db SQLite database. 
[global]
  hist: /fast/ssd/copyparty  # put db on SSD for speed
  
[/music]
  /slow/nas/music
  flags:
    hist: -                   # or per-volume: use volume's .hist/
    dbpath: /fast/ssd/music   # db only (thumbnails stay in volume)
Placing the database on an SSD dramatically improves search performance, especially for large libraries.

​
API Access

​
Search via HTTP API

# Search by name
curl 'http://localhost:3923/?q=demetori'

# Search with filters
curl 'http://localhost:3923/?q=styx&artist=demetori'

# JSON output
curl 'http://localhost:3923/?j&q=demetori'

​
Raw SQL via API

curl --data-urlencode "q=w like 'abc%'" \
  'http://localhost:3923/?raw'

​
Search Results

Results display:
  • File path (click to navigate)
  • File size
  • Last modified date
  • Metadata tags (if indexed)
  • Upload time (if -e2d and -mte +.up_at)

​
Show Upload Time

[global]
  e2d
  mte: +.up_at  # append to existing tags
Or per-volume: 
flags:
  e2d
  mte: +.up_at

​
Advanced: Periodic Rescans

Keep index current if other software modifies files: 
[global]
  re-maxage: 3600  # rescan every hour
  
[/uploads]
  /mnt/uploads
  flags:
    scan: 300      # this volume: every 5 minutes
Rescans disable uploads temporarily. Delayed by --db-act (default 10s) during active uploads.

​
Filesystem Guards

Prevent indexing across filesystems: 
[/music]
  /mnt/music
  flags:
    xdev   # don't cross filesystem boundaries
    xvol   # don't follow symlinks outside volume
  • xdev: Skip bind-mounts and separate filesystems
  • xvol: Skip symlinks outside volume top directory
[global]
  e2dsa                  # full file indexing
  e2ts                   # tag indexing
  mte: artist,title,album,.tn,.bpm,key
  mth: .dur,fmt,genre    # hidden but searchable
  hist: /fast/ssd/db     # fast database location
  
[/music]
  /mnt/nas/music
  accs:
    r: *
  flags:
    dotsrch              # include dotfiles in search
    scan: 3600           # hourly rescan
    srch_excl: 'temp|\._' # exclude temp and macOS files
Search examples: 
artist: demetori .bpm: 170-180
title: *touhou* genre: *metal*
.dur: 300- artist: *sound* -artist: *collaboration*

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Get started for freeTalk to us