🔍 Server-Side Text Search (PHP)

A fast, dependency-free, single-file PHP tool for recursively searching files and directories on the server.

This project provides a powerful web-based interface to scan directories, filter files, and search content using plain text or regular expressions all from a single index.php file.

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✨ Features

• ⚡ High-performance recursive search
• 🔎 Content-based search (text or regex)
• 📁 File filtering by extension, name, or path
• 🚫 Exclude/include directories and files
• 🔤 Case-sensitive / insensitive search
• 🧠 Whole-word matching support
• 📊 Search statistics (files, matches, size, time)
• 📄 Line previews with highlighting
• 🛑 Binary file detection
• 📏 File size limits for safe scanning
• 🔐 Root jail protection (filesystem restriction)
• 🧾 Single-file deployment (no dependencies)

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📸 Overview

This tool provides a clean web UI to:

• Input a base directory
• Define search conditions
• Execute scans
• View matched files with highlighted results

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🚀 Installation

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/BaseMax/server-side-text-search.git

2. Upload index.php to your server:

/var/www/html/index.php

3. Open in browser:

http://your-domain.com/index.php

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⚙️ Configuration

Inside index.php, modify the $CONFIG array:

$CONFIG = [
    'base_path'      => __DIR__,
    'root_jail'      => __DIR__,
    'max_file_bytes' => 5 * 1024 * 1024,
    'max_results'    => 2000,
    'max_preview'    => 5,
    'max_depth'      => 0,
];

Important Options

Option	Description
base_path	Default search directory
root_jail	Restricts search to a safe directory
max_file_bytes	Max file size to scan
max_results	Maximum returned results
max_depth	Directory recursion depth

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🔐 Security Warning

⚠️ This tool provides direct access to your filesystem.

You MUST:

• Protect with authentication (e.g., HTTP auth)
• Restrict access via IP or VPN
• Configure root_jail properly
• Never expose publicly without protection

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🧪 Usage

Basic Search

• Enter a base path
• Enter text to search
• Click Search

Advanced Options

• Regex search
• Case sensitivity toggle
• Whole word matching
• Include/exclude filters
• File extension filtering

Example Queries

Use Case	Input
Find PHP functions	function\s+\w+\( (Regex ON)
Find exact word	Enable "Whole word"
Only PHP files	php in extensions
Exclude vendor	vendor in ignore dirs

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📊 Output

Each result shows:

• File path
• Match count
• File size
• Last modified time
• Preview lines with highlights

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🏗️ Architecture

• Pure PHP (no frameworks)
• Recursive directory traversal
• Line-by-line file scanning
• Memory-efficient processing
• Early stopping via caps

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⚡ Performance Notes

• Skips large files (configurable)
• Avoids binary files automatically
• Limits results for responsiveness
• Uses streaming (fgets) instead of loading full files

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📁 Project Structure

.
├── index.php     # Main application (single file)
├── README.md
└── LICENSE

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🧩 Use Cases

• Debugging large codebases
• Searching logs on production servers
• Finding hardcoded values
• Security audits
• DevOps file inspection

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📜 License

This project is licensed under the GPL-3.0 License.

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⭐ Support

If you find this project useful:

• Star the repository ⭐
• Share it with others
• Contribute improvements

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🤝 Contributing

Pull requests are welcome. For major changes, please open an issue first to discuss what you would like to change.

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🔧 Future Improvements

• CLI version
• API endpoint support
• Export results (JSON/CSV)
• Async scanning
• Multi-threading (via extensions)

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⚠️ Disclaimer

This tool is provided "as-is" without any warranties. Use at your own risk, especially in production environments.

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© Copyright

Copyright © 2026 Seyyed Ali Mohammadiyeh (Max Base) All rights reserved.