Patch to enable PCManFM quick search to match mid-string (instead of strictly at the beginning)

PCManFM lets you select a file or directory by typing the first letters of its name.

Unfortunately, it does not let you search the file by typing a sub-string that appears in the middle of the file name. For example, typing "down" will select "Downloads", but typing "loads" will not, even though "loads" appears in the string.

Luckily, there is a way to change that, but it requires patching the source code of libfm, which is used by PCManFM. So, if you have Debian, download the source code and build dependencies:

 apt-get source libfm  
 sudo apt-get build-dep libfm  

After that, apply this patch:

 commit 437943e1ba9a43cd1809a1957d221a44fb22e02f  
 Author: sashoalm <sashoalm@aspire>  
 Date:  Sun Feb 23 12:45:09 2014 +0200  
   Enable mid-string search in PCManFM.  
 diff --git a/src/gtk/exo/exo-icon-view.c b/src/gtk/exo/exo-icon-view.c  
 index 8cf6279..1131580 100644  
 --- a/src/gtk/exo/exo-icon-view.c  
 +++ b/src/gtk/exo/exo-icon-view.c  
 @@ -453,7 +453,7 @@ static void   exo_icon_view_search_preedit_changed  (GtkIMContext  *im_cont  
  #endif  
  static gboolean exo_icon_view_search_start       (ExoIconView  *icon_view,  
                              gboolean    keybinding);  
 -static gboolean exo_icon_view_search_equal_func     (GtkTreeModel  *model,  
 +gboolean exo_icon_view_search_equal_func     (GtkTreeModel  *model,  
                              gint      column,  
                              const gchar  *key,  
                              GtkTreeIter  *iter,  
 @@ -8871,7 +8871,7 @@ exo_icon_view_search_start (ExoIconView *icon_view,  
 -static gboolean  
 +gboolean  
  exo_icon_view_search_equal_func (GtkTreeModel *model,  
                  gint     column,  
                  const gchar *key,  
 @@ -8918,7 +8918,7 @@ exo_icon_view_search_equal_func (GtkTreeModel *model,  
     case_normalized_key = g_utf8_casefold (normalized_key, -1);  
     /* compare the casefolded strings */  
 -   if (strncmp (case_normalized_key, case_normalized_string, strlen (case_normalized_key)) == 0)  
 +   if (strstr (case_normalized_string, case_normalized_key) != 0)  
      retval = FALSE;  
    }  
 diff --git a/src/gtk/exo/exo-tree-view.c b/src/gtk/exo/exo-tree-view.c  
 index 207cc9c..36ac5a7 100644  
 --- a/src/gtk/exo/exo-tree-view.c  
 +++ b/src/gtk/exo/exo-tree-view.c  
 @@ -223,11 +223,18 @@ exo_tree_view_class_init (ExoTreeViewClass *klass)  
                             EXO_PARAM_READWRITE));  
  }  
 -  
 +gboolean  
 +exo_icon_view_search_equal_func (GtkTreeModel *model,  
 +                 gint     column,  
 +                 const gchar *key,  
 +                 GtkTreeIter *iter,  
 +                 gpointer   user_data);  
  static void  
  exo_tree_view_init (ExoTreeView *tree_view)  
  {  
 + gtk_tree_view_set_search_equal_func(&tree_view->__parent__, exo_icon_view_search_equal_func, 0, 0);  
 +   
   /* grab a pointer on the private data */  
   tree_view->priv = EXO_TREE_VIEW_GET_PRIVATE (tree_view);  
   tree_view->priv->single_click_timeout_id = -1;  

After that compile and install libfm:

 ./configure  
 make  
 sudo make install  

This will install it in /usr/local/lib, and our modified libfm will be loaded by PCManFM instead of the stock that comes with Ubuntu, and is in /usr/lib.