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Map a Synology Share and Build a Targeted qgrep Index (Without Polluting Your Home Folder)

If you’ve ever pointed a search tool at a giant dataset on a NAS and watched it spray indexes into your user profile… this one’s for you. Here’s a clean, repeatable way to map a Synology share, tell qgrep to keep its index in a specific folder on that share, and then search it—fast.

Use case: I’ve got breach data under breach_data\china on a Synology mapped to Z:. I want the index next to the data, in Z:\qgrep_china_index, not under C:\Users\<me>\.qgrep.

TL;DR (commands you can paste)

REM 1) One-time init: config/index lives in Z:\qgrep_china_index
qgrep init "Z:\qgrep_china_index\china.cfg" "Z:\breach_data\china"

REM 2) Build/update the index
qgrep update "Z:\qgrep_china_index\china.cfg"

REM 3) Search it (options are letters, not dashes)
qgrep search "Z:\qgrep_china_index\china.cfg" i "password"
qgrep search "Z:\qgrep_china_index\china.cfg" il "example@domain.com"
qgrep search "Z:\qgrep_china_index\china.cfg" Vi "credential leak"
  • i → case-insensitive
  • l → literal substring (no regex)
  • V → Visual Studio‐style formatting (nice in many terminals/editors)

1) Map the Synology share (Windows)

  1. In File Explorer → right‑click This PC → Map network drive…
  2. Pick a letter (I’ll use Z:).
  3. Folder: \\10.0.0.130\<YourSharedFolder> (for example, \\10.0.0.130\data)
  4. Check Reconnect at sign‑in, authenticate with your Synology account.

If you’re on macOS: Finder → Go → Connect to Server… → smb://10.0.0.130/<YourSharedFolder> → Connect. The rest of this post still applies; just swap Z: paths for your mount point.

2) Why put the index next to the data?

  • Portability: Move/copy/share the dataset + index as a unit.
  • Clean home folder: No sprawling .qgrep under your profile.
  • Multi‑machine: Any analyst who mounts the share can reuse the index.

Create the index folder once:

mkdir "Z:\qgrep_china_index"

3) Initialize a qgrep project with a custom location

qgrep expects either a project name (stored under your home) or a path to a .cfg file. We’ll use the second form so the config and index live on Z::

qgrep init "Z:\qgrep_china_index\china.cfg" "Z:\breach_data\china"

What this does:

  • Writes china.cfg under Z:\qgrep_china_index
  • Associates that config with the source tree Z:\breach_data\china
  • Subsequent update/search calls use that .cfg path

Tip: If you accidentally ran qgrep init china "..." earlier, that made a project under your home. No problem—just use the .cfg form above going forward.

4) Build (and refresh) the index

qgrep update "Z:\qgrep_china_index\china.cfg"
  • First run: full index (time depends on dataset + network).
  • Later runs: incremental—fast. Make it a habit after you add new files.

5) Search patterns that actually help

A few real‑world examples you’ll likely use on breach data:

REM Case-insensitive keyword
qgrep search "Z:\qgrep_china_index\china.cfg" i "password"

REM Literal email (avoid regex surprises)
qgrep search "Z:\qgrep_china_index\china.cfg" il "example@domain.com"

REM Multiple tokens: use regex OR literal wisely
qgrep search "Z:\qgrep_china_index\china.cfg" i "(apikey|token|bearer)"

REM CSV-ish hunting: literal comma-separated field labels
qgrep search "Z:\qgrep_china_index\china.cfg" il "username,password"

REM Nice formatting for editor jumps
qgrep search "Z:\qgrep_china_index\china.cfg" Vi "credential leak"

Heads‑up: The search options are letters without dashes (e.g., i, l, V). If you type -i out of habit, qgrep will ignore it.

6) One‑liner batch to set up and test

Save this as qgrep_china_setup_and_search.bat and run it from any shell:

@echo off
set CFG=Z:\qgrep_china_index\china.cfg
set DATA=Z:\breach_data\china
set TEST=il "password"

if not exist "Z:\qgrep_china_index" mkdir "Z:\qgrep_china_index"

REM Initialize only if it doesn't already exist
if not exist "%CFG%" (
  echo Initializing project at %CFG% for %DATA%...
  qgrep init "%CFG%" "%DATA%"
)

echo Updating index...
qgrep update "%CFG%"

echo.
echo Running test search (%TEST%)...
qgrep search "%CFG%" %TEST%
echo.
echo Done.

PowerShell flavor:

$cfg  = 'Z:\qgrep_china_index\china.cfg'
$data = 'Z:\breach_data\china'

if (-not (Test-Path 'Z:\qgrep_china_index')) { New-Item -ItemType Directory 'Z:\qgrep_china_index' | Out-Null }
if (-not (Test-Path $cfg)) { qgrep init $cfg $data }

qgrep update $cfg
qgrep search $cfg il 'password'

7) Performance + sanity notes

  • Index once, search many times: Most of your cost is the initial pass.
  • Network throughput matters: Indexing over Wi‑Fi on a big share will feel slow. If practical, do it on wired.
  • Permissions: If you see access errors, make sure the Synology share account can read all subfolders (and that nothing is locked by another process).
  • Scope control: If you’ve got noisy artifacts (e.g., node_modules, archives), consider excluding them upstream (e.g., remove from the dataset copy) to keep the index lean.

8) Optional: interactive mode and watching changes

When you’re iterating a lot:

qgrep interactive "Z:\qgrep_china_index\china.cfg"

This gives you a prompt where you can type queries rapidly without re‑specifying options. For incrementals, just run qgrep update again whenever the dataset changes.

Wrap‑up

That’s the workflow:

  1. Map the Synology share.
  2. Create a dedicated index folder next to the data.
  3. qgrep init using a .cfg path on the share.
  4. qgrep update to build the index.
  5. qgrep search with letter options (i, l, V) to hunt quickly