>> I have a large number of files that live on offline media (data DVD), >> and it's getting difficult to keep track of which dvd (out of 100+ >> disks currently) the file I want is on. >> >> Does anyone have any suggestions for creating a searchable database >> where I could enter a substring of a filename and have the database >> return full filenames and the correct disk. >> >> I know this situation has occurred before and been solved by others, >> but I can't find any descriptions on how such a system would be >> organized. >> >> Anyone have any pointers for me? >How about grep and a flat text file? > >Disk Filename > >You could gzip the text file, and gzcat filename | grep "foo" How about use (s)locate? You can just use a separate locate DB for each disk then write a trivial shell script to search all the locate DBs for the file(s) and optionally stop searching after the DB with the first hit.