Eclipse plug-in for quick code search

InstaSearch is an Eclipse IDE plug-in for performing quick and advanced search of workspace files. It indexes files using Lucene and keeps the index up to date automatically. The search is performed instantly as-you-type and resulting files are displayed in an Eclipse view.

Each file then can be previewed using few most matching and relevant lines. A double-click on the match leads to the matching line in the file.

Because Eclipse 2024-06 through 2024-12 are built on Apache Lucene 9.10.0 or later,
plugin version 1.0.0 provides initial support for this Lucene version range.

• Apache Lucene 9.10.0+
• JDK 17

Starting from version 1.1.0, the plugin supports Eclipse 2025-03 and later, and upgrades its dependency to Apache Lucene 10.0.0 or later.

• Apache Lucene 10.0.0+
• JDK 21

Use

Once InstaSearch is successfully installed, you'll see a nice little "InstaSearch" search tab appear at the bottom:

You can also click the Search menu option at the top --> InstaSearch...

Search Tips

Lucene query syntax can be used for searching. This includes:

• Wildcard searches
  • app* initialize
• Excluding words
  • application -initialize
• Fuzzy searches to find similar matches
  • application init~
• Limit by location - directory, projects or working set
  • proj:MyProject,OtherProject application init
  • ws:MyWorkingSet dir:src init
• Limit by filename, extension or modification time
  • name:app* ext:java,xml,txt modified:yesterday
• Search by file name initials (e.g. FOS to find FileOutputStream.java)
  • name:FOS

To exclude some folders from search indexing, mark them as Derived in the folder's properties. There are also useful Eclipse Search Tips.

Note: Fuzzy search is started automatically if no exact matches are found

Features

• Instantly shows search results
• Shows a preview using relevant lines
• Periodically updates the index
• Matches partial words (e.g. case in CamelCase)
• Opens and highlights matches in files
• Searches JAR source attachments
• Supports filtering by extension/project/working set

History

Fork of eclipse-instasearch on Github.

Build

This project uses Tycho with Maven to build. It requires Maven 3.9.0 or higher version.

Dev build:

mvn clean verify

Release build:

mvn clean org.eclipse.tycho:tycho-versions-plugin:set-version -DnewVersion=2.0.0 verify

Install

1. For Eclipse 2024-06 ~ 2024-12, add
   https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tlcsdm/eclipse-instasearch/update_site_2024/ as the upgrade location in Eclipse.
   For Eclipse 2025-03 and later, add
   https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tlcsdm/eclipse-instasearch/update_site/ as the upgrade location in Eclipse.
2. Download from Jenkins

3. ← Drag it to your eclipse workbench to install! (I recommand Main Toolbar as Drop Target)