> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://itsfoss.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Clapgrep: An Easy-to-Use Open Source Linux App To Search Through Your PDFs and Text Documents - URL: https://itsfoss.com/news/clapgrep/ - Published: 2024-12-01T17:43:28.000Z - Updated: 2024-12-01T17:43:37.000Z - Description: Want to look for something in your text documents? Use Clapgrep to quick search for it! - Author: Sourav Rudra - Tags: App of the Week, News, #Import 2025-11-08 21:15 Manually searching the contents of a text file can be taxing if you have to do it regularly, across many files. That is where tools like [grep](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grep?ref=itsfoss.com), [pdfgrep](https://itsfoss.com/pdfgrep/) and [ripgrep-all](https://itsfoss.com/ripgrep-all/) come in, acting as a more efficient way of looking for information, allowing quick and easy searches for specific keywords, strings, or patterns. However, all of them are CLI-based tools. How about a GUI-based solution? I found one, and it is called **Clapgrep**, which looks appealing for its minimal, no-nonsense experience. So, join me as I take you through the latest [App Of The Week](https://itsfoss.com/tag/app-of-the-week/). ## Clapgrep: Superfast Text Searches ![a screenshot of clapgrep about page](https://itsfoss.com/content/images/2024/11/Clapgrep_a.png) As a Rust and Python-based application, Clapgrep is **a powerful, open source search tool for Linux** that can be used to search through multiple types of files in a specified directory. It is a GUI front-end for [ripgrep](https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep?ref=itsfoss.com). If you look closely, the logo and name for the app are derived from [Claptrap](https://borderlands.fandom.com/wiki/Claptrap?ref=itsfoss.com), the big-mouth robots from the Borderlands series of games (*the movie doesn't count*). ### ⭐ Key Features Clapgrep offers fast searches for text, PDFs, and common office document files, with relevant metadata such as page and line numbers being shown after a successful search query. Some of its highlights include: - **Supports Regex** - **Actively Developed** - **Intuitive User Interface** ### 💻 User Experience I ran it on my [Fedora 40](https://itsfoss.com/fedora-40-release/) system by using the official flatpak without any issues. The interface was easy to get acquainted with, and the search results were fairly simple to understand. After setting a search path where some demo text files were stored, I searched for the term “*floopy*” and Clapgrep found me the file and the lines where that term was mentioned. I could even directly open the file by clicking on the title and selecting one of the installed text editors. ![](https://itsfoss.com/content/images/2024/11/Clapgrep_b.png) ![](https://itsfoss.com/content/images/2024/11/Clapgrep_c.png) Clapgrep search works as expected, with the file opening dialog being useful as well. I then took things up a notch by enabling the “*Case Sensitive*” search option and entered the term “*What the dog doin?*”. Clapgrep showed me the exact lines where that term was mentioned in a text file. ![a screenshot of clapgrep being used to search for a case sensitive piece of text](https://itsfoss.com/content/images/2024/11/Clapgrep_d.png) **Searching for code is straightforward too**, with a dedicated “*Disable Regex*” option for turning off [regular expression](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular%5Fexpression?ref=itsfoss.com) searches. As you can see below, I had to disable it to search for a specific line in a Python file for a snake game. ![a screenshot of clapgrep being used to search a line of python code](https://itsfoss.com/content/images/2024/11/Clapgrep_e.png) In my testing, **I missed EPUB support**. It would have been great if Clapgrep could do that. It would make searching for passages in a book much easier. I highly recommend this application for users who prefer a GUI app over a terminal app. ## ⚙️ Installing Clapgrep on Linux The most recent release of Clapgrep can be found on [Flathub](https://flathub.org/apps/de.leopoldluley.Clapgrep?ref=itsfoss.com), with the [GitHub](https://github.com/luleyleo/clapgrep?ref=itsfoss.com) repo containing the source code for those looking to build manually or contribute to the project. [Clapgrep](https://flathub.org/apps/de.leopoldluley.Clapgrep?ref=itsfoss.com) **Suggested Read** 📖 [ripgrep-all Command in Linux: One grep to Rule Them Allrga, called ripgrep-all, is an excellent tool that allows you to search almost all files for a text pattern. While the OG grep command is limited to plaintext files, rga can search for text in a wide range of file types such as PDF, e-Books, Word documents, zip, tar, and![](https://itsfoss.com/content/images/size/w256h256/2022/12/android-chrome-192x192.png)It's FOSSPratham Patel![](https://itsfoss.com/content/images/wordpress/2022/06/ripgrep-all.png)](https://itsfoss.com/ripgrep-all/)