dropbox file search content

Search file content

Searches for files by content with options for file type and category filtering.

Security

watermint toolbox stores credentials into the file system. That is located at below path:

Please do not share those files to anyone including Dropbox support. You can delete those files after use if you want to remove it. If you want to make sure removal of credentials, revoke application access from setting or the admin console.

Please see below help article for more detail:

• Dropbox (Individual account): https://help.dropbox.com/installs-integrations/third-party/third-party-apps

Auth scopes

Authorization

For the first run, tbx will ask you an authentication with your Dropbox account. Please copy the link and paste it into your browser. Then proceed to authorization. After authorization, Dropbox will show you an authorization code. Please copy that code and paste it to the application.

watermint toolbox xx.x.xxx
==========================

© 2016-2025 Takayuki Okazaki
Licensed under open source licenses. Use the `license` command for more detail.

1. Visit the URL for the auth dialogue:

https://www.dropbox.com/oauth2/authorize?client_id=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx&response_type=code&state=xxxxxxxx

2. Click 'Allow' (you might have to login first):
3. Copy the authorization code:
Enter the authorization code

Installation

Please download the pre-compiled binary from Latest Release. If you are using Windows, please download the zip file like tbx-xx.x.xxx-win.zip. Then, extract the archive and place tbx.exe on the Desktop folder. The watermint toolbox can run from any path in the system if allowed by the system. But the instruction samples are using the Desktop folder. Please replace the path if you placed the binary other than the Desktop folder.

Usage

This document uses the Desktop folder for command example.

Run

Windows:

cd $HOME\Desktop
.\tbx.exe dropbox file search content -query QUERY

macOS, Linux:

$HOME/Desktop/tbx dropbox file search content -query QUERY

Note for macOS Catalina 10.15 or above: macOS verifies Developer identity. Currently, tbx is not ready for it. Please select “Cancel” on the first dialogue. Then please proceed “System Preference”, then open “Security & Privacy”, select “General” tab. You may find the message like:

“tbx” was blocked from use because it is not from an identified developer.

And you may find the button “Allow Anyway”. Please hit the button with your risk. At second run, please hit button “Open” on the dialogue.

Options:

-base-path

Choose the file path standard. This is an option for Dropbox for Teams in particular. If you are using the personal version of Dropbox, it basically doesn’t matter what you choose. In Dropbox for Teams, if you select home in the updated team space, a personal folder with your username will be selected. This is convenient for referencing or uploading files in your personal folder, as you don’t need to include the folder name with your username in the path. On the other hand, if you specify root, you can access all folders with permissions. On the other hand, when accessing your personal folder, you need to specify a path that includes the name of your personal folder.. Options: root (Full access to all folders with permissions), home (Access limited to personal home folder). Default: root

-category

Restricts search to only the file categories specified (image/document/pdf/spreadsheet/presentation/audio/video/folder/paper/others).. Options:. • (category: ). • image (category: image). • document (category: document). • pdf (category: pdf). • spreadsheet (category: spreadsheet). • presentation (category: presentation). • audio (category: audio). • video (category: video). • folder (category: folder). • paper (category: paper). • others (category: others)

-extension

Restricts search to only the extensions specified.

-max-results

Maximum number of entries to return. Default: 25

-path

Scopes the search to a path in the user’s Dropbox.

-peer

Account alias. Default: default

-query

The string to search for.

Common options:

-auth-database

Custom path to auth database (default: $HOME/.toolbox/secrets/secrets.db)

-auto-open

Auto open URL or artifact folder. Default: false

-bandwidth-kb

Bandwidth limit in K bytes per sec for upload/download content. 0 for unlimited. Default: 0

-budget-memory

Memory budget (limits some feature to reduce memory footprint). Options: low, normal. Default: normal

-budget-storage

Storage budget (limits logs or some feature to reduce storage usage). Options: low, normal, unlimited. Default: normal

-concurrency

Maximum concurrency for running operation. Default: Number of processors

-debug

Enable debug mode. Default: false

-experiment

Enable experimental feature(s).

-extra

Extra parameter file path

-lang

Display language. Options: auto, en, ja. Default: auto

-output

Output format (none/text/markdown/json). Options: text, markdown, json, none. Default: text

-output-filter

Output filter query (jq syntax). The output of the report is filtered using jq syntax. This option is only applied when the report is output as JSON.

-proxy

HTTP/HTTPS proxy (hostname:port). Please specify DIRECT if you want to skip setting proxy.

-quiet

Suppress non-error messages, and make output readable by a machine (JSON format). Default: false

-retain-job-data

Job data retain policy. Options: default, on_error, none. Default: default

-secure

Do not store tokens into a file. Default: false

-skip-logging

Skip logging in the local storage. Default: false

-verbose

Show current operations for more detail.. Default: false

-workspace

Workspace path

Results

Report file path will be displayed last line of the command line output. If you missed the command line output, please see path below. [job-id] will be the date/time of the run. Please see the latest job-id.

Report: matches

This report shows a result of search with highlighted text. The command will generate a report in three different formats. matches.csv, matches.json, and matches.xlsx.

If you run with -budget-memory low option, the command will generate only JSON format report.

In case of a report becomes large, a report in .xlsx format will be split into several chunks like follows; matches_0000.xlsx, matches_0001.xlsx, matches_0002.xlsx, …