Recoll text search tool Mini Howto for linux. (I am using ubuntu 7.04 and kde 3.5.6) Back to Main Page
This i a very short version, and if you want to know more, go to the
Internet etc.
This howto is without any guarantee, and you may use it on your own responsibility only.
There may be errors, but I do not want to use too much time to write this howto.
My idea is to make documentation, so you can at least start using
the program, without reading lots of documentation scrolling down your
screen.
I (66 years old) have abstracted what I find most important, from lots and lots of documentation.
To check specific words you may click here to open wikipedia (use search box, left side middle).
It's easiest to print this howto out, to use it, by your side !
Recoll is a free text search tool (a la google) - there is almost no
limit for how much data you can index - the worst drawback is, that the the index data fills
almost as much as the data to be indexed.
When I indexed first time, it took about 4 hours to index some 4 gb of data.
To install recoll download the recoll deb package from here: Click here to download the recoll***.deb package (choose the package that suits your distribution).
For this exercise we will use "recoll_1.9.0-0ubuntu1_i386.deb"
Open a konsole, and then run the following commands:
mkdir /home/yourusername/downloads (creates a subdirectory
called"downloads") - "yourusername" has to be replaced with your real
username.
mkdir /home/yourusername/downloads/recoll (creates a subdirectory called "recoll")
Then copy the "recoll_1.9.0-0ubuntu1_i386.deb" file to /home/yourusername/downloads/recoll
cd /home/yourusername/downloads/recoll
sudo dpkg -i recoll_1.9.0-0ubuntu1_i386.deb (installs the recoll package)
sudo apt-get install -f (solves dependencies for recoll - you must answer "y" to any questions during this process)
By default recoll will only index your home directory ("/home/yourusername" also called "~")
In order to change which directories to index, you have to edit the "/usr/share/recoll/examples/recoll.conf" file:
Here is an abstract of the "/usr/share/recoll/examples/recoll.conf" file, before editing:
# @(#$Id: recoll.conf.in,v 1.14 2007/01/16 10:58:42 dockes Exp $ (C) 2004 J.F.Dockes
#
# Recoll default configuration file. This should be copied to
# ~/.recoll/recoll.conf
# Space-separated list of directories to index. Next line indexes $HOME
topdirs = ~
topdirs
= ~ ("~" selected to be indexed)
# Wildcard expressions for names of files and directories that we should
*** cut ***
Here is an abstract of the "/usr/share/recoll/examples/recoll.conf" file, after editing:
# @(#$Id: recoll.conf.in,v 1.14 2007/01/16 10:58:42 dockes Exp $ (C) 2004 J.F.Dockes
#
# Recoll default configuration file. This should be copied to
# ~/.recoll/recoll.conf
# Space-separated list of directories to index. Next line indexes $HOME
topdirs = ~
topdirs
= ~ /etc /boot /root ("~", "/etc", "/boot", "/root" directories selected to be indexed)
# Wildcard expressions for names of files and directories that we should
*** cut ***
Above I have highlighted the relevant text, which are to be edited, with yellow (before and after).
In order to edit the file, run the following command:
sudo nano /usr/share/recoll/examples/recoll.conf
When finished editing in the nano editor do: "ctrl+x" - "y" - enter
Then it is just to start the "recoll" program, choose: K - Utilities - Recoll, and recoll starts indexing:
You will see text on the lower part showing the indexing in progress (see above).
The first time indexing can take several hours, depending on the size of the data being indexed (several hours).
To for example search for the /etc/fstab file, insert a search word (or phrase),
then click on the "Search" button or just press "enter" (see below):
Above you see the search result, and to see the contents of the "fstab"
file left click on "Preview" or to edit the file left click
on "Edit" (black marking).
You may change the "/usr/share/recoll/examples/mimeview" file as shown below (in yellow).
sudo nano /usr/share/recoll/examples/mimeveiw
# @(#$Id: mimeview,v 1.8 2007/08/26 13:34:59 dockes Exp $ (C) 2004 J.F.Dockes
## ##########################################
# External viewers, launched by the recoll GUI when you click on a result
# 'edit' link
[view]
# Pseudo entry used if the 'use desktop' preference is set in the GUI
application/x-all = xdg-open %f
application/x-kword = kword %f
application/x-abiword = abiword %f
application/msword = openoffice %f
application/ogg = xmms %f
application/pdf = xpdf %f
application/postscript = gv %f
application/vnd.ms-excel = openoffice %f
application/vnd.ms-powerpoint = openoffice %f
application/vnd.sun.xml.calc = openoffice %f
application/vnd.sun.xml.calc.template = openoffice %f
application/vnd.sun.xml.draw = openoffice %f
application/vnd.sun.xml.draw.template = openoffice %f
application/vnd.sun.xml.impress = openoffice %f
application/vnd.sun.xml.impress.template = openoffice %f
application/vnd.sun.xml.math = openoffice %f
application/vnd.sun.xml.writer = openoffice %f
application/vnd.sun.xml.writer.global = openoffice %f
application/vnd.sun.xml.writer.template = openoffice %f
application/vnd.wordperfect = openoffice %f
application/x-fsdirectory = rox %f
application/x-dvi = xdvi %f
application/x-flac = xmms %f
application/x-lyx = lyx %f
application/x-scribus = scribus %f
audio/mpeg = xmms %f
image/jpeg = xv %f
image/png = xv %f
image/vnd.djvu = djview %f
# Or firefox -remote "openFile(%u)"
text/html = firefox %u
text/plain = kwrite %f
text/x-c = gnuclient -q %f
message/rfc822 = kwrite %f
When finished editing do: "ctrl+x" - "y" - enter
You can also right click with the mouse on a search result to get a context menu (see below):
Then you can choose any of the menu items, e.g. "Copy Url", or "Copy
File Name" and then paste it into a file manager, or open the "kwrite"
text editor - File -
Open - and then paste it into into the location text bar (see below):
For the time being recoll seems to have some minor problems (on my
system), e.g. I cannot make it find *.jpg image files, but otherwise it
seems to work very
well. (It might be combined with using the "locate" command, for finding *.jpg -or other special file formats files).
10/2007