Marlin

Marlin is a lightweight, metadata-driven file indexer that runs 100 % on your computer. It scans folders, stores paths and file stats in SQLite, lets you attach hierarchical tags and custom attributes, keeps timestamped snapshots, and offers instant full-text search via FTS5. No cloud, no telemetry – your data never leaves the machine.

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Feature highlights

Area	What you get
Safety	Timestamped backups (marlin backup) and one-command restore (marlin restore)
Resilience	Versioned, idempotent schema migrations – zero-downtime upgrades
Indexing	Fast multi-path scanner with SQLite WAL concurrency
Metadata	Hierarchical tags (project/alpha) & key-value attributes (reviewed=yes)
Relations	Typed file ↔ file links (marlin link) with backlinks viewer
Collections / Views	Named playlists (marlin coll) & saved searches (marlin view) for instant recall
Search	Prefix-aware FTS5 across paths, tags, attrs & links; optional --exec per match (grep-style context snippets coming Q3)
DX / Logs	Structured tracing (RUST_LOG=debug) for every operation

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How it works

┌──────────────┐  marlin scan          ┌─────────────┐
│  your files  │ ─────────────────────▶│   SQLite    │
│ (any folder) │                      │  files/tags │
└──────────────┘   tag / attr / link   │ attrs / FTS │
        ▲   search / exec             └──────┬──────┘
        └────────── backup / restore          ▼
                                     timestamped snapshots

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Prerequisites

Requirement	Why
Rust ≥ 1.77	Build toolchain (rustup.rs)
C build essentials	Builds bundled SQLite (Linux)

macOS & Windows users: let the Rust installer pull the matching build tools.

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Build & install

git clone https://github.com/PR0M3TH3AN/Marlin.git
cd Marlin
cargo build --release

# (Optional) install into your PATH
sudo install -Dm755 target/release/marlin /usr/local/bin/marlin

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Quick start

For a concise walkthrough—including links, collections and views—see Quick start & Demo.

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Testing

Below is a repeat-able 3-step flow you can use every time you pull fresh code.

0 Prepare once

# Put build artefacts in one place (faster incremental builds)
export CARGO_TARGET_DIR=target

1 Build the new binary

git pull
cargo build --release
sudo install -Dm755 target/release/marlin /usr/local/bin/marlin

2 Run the smoke-test suite

cargo test --test e2e -- --nocapture

Streams CLI output live; exit-code 0 = all good.

3 (Optionally) run all tests

cargo test --all -- --nocapture

This now covers:

• unit tests in src/**
• positive & negative integration suites (tests/pos.rs, tests/neg.rs)
• doc-tests

One-liner helper

git pull && cargo build --release &&
sudo install -Dm755 target/release/marlin /usr/local/bin/marlin &&
cargo test --test e2e -- --nocapture

Alias it as marlin-ci for a 5-second upgrade-and-verify loop.

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Database location

OS	Default path
Linux	~/.local/share/marlin/index.db
macOS	~/Library/Application Support/marlin/index.db
Windows	%APPDATA%\marlin\index.db

Override:

export MARLIN_DB_PATH=/path/to/custom.db

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CLI reference

marlin <COMMAND> [ARGS]

init                               create / migrate DB **and perform an initial scan of the cwd**
scan     <PATHS>...                walk directories & (re)index files
tag      "<glob>" <tag_path>       add hierarchical tag
attr     set <pattern> <key> <val> set or update custom attribute
attr     ls  <path>                list attributes
link     add|rm|list|backlinks     manage typed file-to-file relations
coll     create|add|list           manage named collections (“playlists”)
view     save|list|exec            save and run smart views (saved queries)
search   <query> [--exec CMD]      FTS5 query; optionally run CMD per hit
backup                             create timestamped snapshot in `backups/`
restore  <snapshot.db>             replace DB with snapshot
completions <shell>                generate shell completions

Attribute sub-commands

Command	Example
attr set	marlin attr set ~/Docs/**/*.pdf reviewed yes
attr ls	marlin attr ls ~/Docs/report.pdf
JSON output	marlin --format=json attr ls ~/Docs/report.pdf

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Backups & restore

marlin backup
# → ~/.local/share/marlin/backups/backup_2025-05-14_22-15-30.db

marlin restore ~/.local/share/marlin/backups/backup_2025-05-14_22-15-30.db

Marlin also creates an automatic safety backup before every non-init command. Auto-prune (backup --prune <N>) lands in Q2.

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Upgrading

cargo install --path . --force   # rebuild & replace installed binary

Versioned migrations preserve your data across upgrades.

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License

MIT – see LICENSE.