...making Linux just a little more fun!

Using Hyperestraier to search your stuff

By Karl Vogel

1. Introduction

I have files, mail, and source code on my system going clear back to 1993. I've tried WAIS, Glimpse, SWISH, and one or two home-grown systems to index it for searching, but so far QDBM and Hyperestraier have given the best results.

2. Setting up QDBM

QDBM is a key/value database, similar to the DBM and NDBM libraries commonly found on most Unix-type systems. It's the underlying DB used by Hyperestraier. Installing it was a breeze; instructions are at https://qdbm.sourceforge.net/spex.html.

[ Modern Linux distributions have either all or most of the software discussed in this article available as standard packages, so installing them is a matter of simply selecting them in your package manager. In Debian, for example, you'd simply type "apt-get install qdbm-utils hyperestraier" at the command line. However, as always, it's good to know the fallback route - which is the download/decompress/compile/install cycle shown here. -- Ben ]

If you're impatient, the installation steps are: 

me% wget https://qdbm.sourceforge.net/qdbm-1.8.77.tar.gz
me% gunzip -c qdbm-1.8.77.tar.gz | tar xf -
me% cd ./qdbm-1.8.77
me% CC=gcc CFLAGS=-O ./configure --enable-zlib --enable-iconv
me% make
me% make check
root# make install
root# rm /usr/local/share/qdbm/spex-ja.html
me% make distclean

The software makes extensive use of compression; it handles several libraries, but zlib is probably the most common, so that's the one I used.

2.1. Configure

Here's how I configured it for use under Solaris. The FreeBSD and Linux steps aren't significantly different: 

me% CC=gcc CFLAGS=-O ./configure --enable-zlib --enable-iconv
#================================================================
# Configuring QDBM version 1.8.77 (zlib) (iconv).
#================================================================
checking for gcc... gcc
checking for C compiler default output file name... a.out
checking whether the C compiler works... yes
checking whether we are cross compiling... no
checking for suffix of executables...
checking for suffix of object files... o
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes
checking for gcc option to accept ANSI C... none needed
checking for ld... /usr/ccs/bin/ld
checking for ar... /usr/ccs/bin/ar
checking for main in -lc... yes
checking for main in -lz... yes
checking for main in -liconv... no
checking for main in -lqdbm... no
configure: creating ./config.status
config.status: creating Makefile
config.status: creating LTmakefile
config.status: creating qdbm.spec
config.status: creating qdbm.pc

2.2. Build and test

Run make as usual. I abbreviated the compile, load, and library lines to shorten the output: 

$compile = gcc -c -I. -I/usr/local/include \
    -DMYZLIB -DMYICONV -D_XOPEN_SOURCE_EXTENDED=1 \
    -D_GNU_SOURCE=1 -D__EXTENSIONS__=1 -D_HPUX_SOURCE=1 \
    -D_POSIX_MAPPED_FILES=1 -D_POSIX_SYNCHRONIZED_IO=1 -DPIC=1 \
    -D_THREAD_SAFE=1 -D_REENTRANT=1 -DNDEBUG -Wall -pedantic -fPIC \
    -fsigned-char -O3 -fomit-frame-pointer -fforce-addr -O1 \
    -fno-omit-frame-pointer -fno-force-addr

$load = LD_RUN_PATH=/lib:/usr/lib:/usr/local/lib: \
    gcc -Wall -pedantic -fPIC -fsigned-char -O3 -fomit-frame-pointer \
    -fforce-addr -O1 -fno-omit-frame-pointer -fno-force-addr

$ldflags = -L. -L/usr/local/lib -lqdbm -lz -lc

Here's the build: 

me% make
$compile depot.c
$compile curia.c
$compile relic.c
$compile hovel.c
$compile cabin.c
$compile villa.c
$compile vista.c
$compile odeum.c
$compile myconf.c
/usr/ccs/bin/ar rcsv libqdbm.a depot.o curia.o relic.o hovel.o cabin.o \
    villa.o vista.o odeum.o myconf.o
a - depot.o
a - curia.o
a - relic.o
a - hovel.o
a - cabin.o
a - villa.o
a - vista.o
a - odeum.o
a - myconf.o
ar: writing libqdbm.a
if uname -a | egrep -i 'SunOS' > /dev/null ; \
  then \
gcc -shared -Wl,-G,-h,libqdbm.so.14 -o libqdbm.so.14.13.0 depot.o curia.o \
    relic.o hovel.o cabin.o villa.o vista.o odeum.o myconf.o -L. \
    -L/usr/local/lib -lz -lc ; \
  else \
gcc -shared -Wl,-soname,libqdbm.so.14 -o libqdbm.so.14.13.0 depot.o \
    curia.o relic.o hovel.o cabin.o villa.o vista.o odeum.o myconf.o -L. \
    -L/usr/local/lib -lz -lc ; \
  fi
ln -f -s libqdbm.so.14.13.0 libqdbm.so.14
ln -f -s libqdbm.so.14.13.0 libqdbm.so
$compile dpmgr.c
$load -o dpmgr dpmgr.o $ldflags
$compile dptest.c
$load -o dptest dptest.o $ldflags
$compile dptsv.c
$load -o dptsv dptsv.o $ldflags
$compile crmgr.c
$load -o crmgr crmgr.o $ldflags
$compile crtest.c
$load -o crtest crtest.o $ldflags
$compile crtsv.c
$load -o crtsv crtsv.o $ldflags
$compile rlmgr.c
$load -o rlmgr rlmgr.o $ldflags
$compile rltest.c
$load -o rltest rltest.o $ldflags
$compile hvmgr.c
$load -o hvmgr hvmgr.o $ldflags
$compile hvtest.c
$load -o hvtest hvtest.o $ldflags
$compile cbtest.c
$load -o cbtest cbtest.o $ldflags
$compile cbcodec.c
$load -o cbcodec cbcodec.o $ldflags
$compile vlmgr.c
$load -o vlmgr vlmgr.o $ldflags
$compile vltest.c
$load -o vltest vltest.o $ldflags
$compile vltsv.c
$load -o vltsv vltsv.o $ldflags
$compile odmgr.c
$load -o odmgr odmgr.o $ldflags
$compile odtest.c
$load -o odtest odtest.o $ldflags
$compile odidx.c
$load -o odidx odidx.o $ldflags
$compile qmttest.c
$load -o qmttest qmttest.o $ldflags

#================================================================
# Ready to install.
#================================================================

You can run make check to test everything, but the output is pretty long, and it takes awhile.

2.3. Install

Here's the installation, with long lines wrapped and indented: 

root# make install
mkdir -p /usr/local/include
cd . && cp -Rf depot.h curia.h relic.h hovel.h cabin.h villa.h
    vista.h odeum.h /usr/local/include
mkdir -p /usr/local/lib
cp -Rf libqdbm.a libqdbm.so.12.10.0 libqdbm.so.12 libqdbm.so
    /usr/local/lib
mkdir -p /usr/local/bin
cp -Rf dpmgr dptest dptsv crmgr crtest crtsv rlmgr rltest hvmgr
    hvtest cbtest cbcodec vlmgr vltest vltsv odmgr odtest odidx
    /usr/local/bin
mkdir -p /usr/local/man/man1
cd ./man && cp -Rf dpmgr.1 dptest.1 dptsv.1 crmgr.1 crtest.1
    crtsv.1 rlmgr.1 rltest.1 hvmgr.1 hvtest.1 cbtest.1 cbcodec.1
    vlmgr.1 vltest.1 vltsv.1 odmgr.1 odtest.1 odidx.1
    /usr/local/man/man1
mkdir -p /usr/local/man/man3
cd ./man && cp -Rf qdbm.3 depot.3 dpopen.3 curia.3 cropen.3
    relic.3 hovel.3 cabin.3 villa.3 vlopen.3 vista.3 odeum.3
    odopen.3 /usr/local/man/man3
mkdir -p /usr/local/share/qdbm
cd . && cp -Rf spex.html spex-ja.html COPYING ChangeLog NEWS
    THANKS /usr/local/share/qdbm
mkdir -p /usr/local/lib/pkgconfig
cd . && cp -Rf qdbm.pc /usr/local/lib/pkgconfig

#================================================================
# Thanks for using QDBM.
#================================================================

Here's the list of installed files.

2.4. Command-line trials

If you want a feel for the DB command-line interface, you can create a QDBM file using /etc/passwd. Use a tab as the password-file field separator: 

me% tr ':' '\t' < passwd | dptsv import casket

me% ls -lF
-rw-r--r--  1 bin  bin  111510 Apr 22 18:59 casket
-r--r--r--  1 bin  bin   56858 Apr 22 18:59 passwd

Check and optimize the DB: 

me% dpmgr inform casket
name: casket
file size: 111510
all buckets: 8191
used buckets: 799
records: 840
inode number: 184027
modified time: 1145746799

me% dpmgr optimize casket

me% dpmgr inform casket
name: casket
file size: 107264
all buckets: 3583
used buckets: 768
records: 840
inode number: 184027
modified time: 1145746970

me% ls -lF casket
-rw-r--r--  1 bin  bin  107264 Apr 22 19:02 casket

Now, try a simple search: 

me% dpmgr get casket vogelke
x       100     100     Karl Vogel  /home/me /bin/sh

me% dpmgr get casket nosuch
dpmgr: casket: no item found

3. Setting up Hyperestraier

Hyperestraier can be downloaded from https://hyperestraier.sourceforge.net. If you're impatient, here's the Cliff-notes version of the installation. I'm assuming that your CGI scripts live under /web/cgi-bin: 

me% wget https://hyperestraier.sourceforge.net/hyperestraier-1.4.13.tar.gz
me% gunzip -c hyperestraier-1.4.13.tar.gz | tar xf -
me% cd ./hyperestraier-1.4.13
me% CC=gcc CFLAGS=-O ./configure
me% make
me% make check
root# make install
root# mv /usr/local/libexec/estseek.cgi /web/cgi-bin
root# cd /usr/local/share/hyperestraier/doc
root# rm index.ja.html intro-ja.html nguide-ja.html
root# rm cguide-ja.html pguide-ja.html uguide-ja.html
me% make distclean

3.1. Configure

Here's the configuration for Solaris: 

me% CC=gcc CFLAGS=-O ./configure
#================================================================
# Configuring Hyper Estraier version 1.4.13.
#================================================================
checking for gcc... gcc
checking for C compiler default output file name... a.out
checking whether the C compiler works... yes
checking whether we are cross compiling... no
checking for suffix of executables...
checking for suffix of object files... o
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes
checking for gcc option to accept ANSI C... none needed
checking for main in -lc... yes
checking for main in -lm... yes
checking for main in -lregex... no
checking for main in -liconv... no
checking for main in -lz... yes
checking for main in -lqdbm... yes
checking for main in -lpthread... yes
checking for main in -lnsl... yes
checking for main in -lsocket... yes
checking for main in -lresolv... yes
checking the version of QDBM ... ok (1.8.77)
configure: creating ./config.status
config.status: creating Makefile
config.status: creating estconfig
config.status: creating hyperestraier.pc
#================================================================
# Ready to make.
#================================================================

3.2. Build, test, and install

Run make. I abbreviated the compile, load, and library lines like before to shorten the output.

Running the testbed took about 4 minutes on a 2.6 GHz workstation using Solaris-10.

4. Indexing and searching

You need two things for searching: a bunch of documents to look through and an inverted index. An inverted index contains words (as keys) mapped to the documents in which they appear. The index is sorted by the keys. "Inverted" means that the documents are the data which you find by looking for matching keys (words), instead of using the document as a key and getting back a bunch of words as the data (which is basically what the filesystem does).

4.1. Plain files

Here's one way to index a specific set of documents and search them from the command line.

I keep things like installation records in plain-text files named "LOG". They're all over the place, so I created an index just for them: 


me% cd /search/estraier/logs

me% ls -lF
-rwxr-xr-x 1 bin  bin    827 Nov 11 20:53 build*
drwxr-xr-x 6 bin  bin    512 Nov 12 04:08 srch/

me% ls -lF srch
drwxr-xr-x 5 bin  bin    512 Jan  8  2008 _attr/
-rw-r--r-- 1 bin  bin 846611 Nov 12 04:08 _aux
-rw-r--r-- 1 bin  bin 621845 Nov 12 04:08 _fwm
drwxr-xr-x 2 bin  bin    512 Nov 12 04:07 _idx/
drwxr-xr-x 5 bin  bin    512 Jan  8  2008 _kwd/
-rw-r--r-- 1 bin  bin  68955 Nov 12 04:08 _list
-rw-r--r-- 1 bin  bin    282 Nov 12 04:08 _meta
drwxr-xr-x 9 bin  bin    512 Jan  8  2008 _text/
-rw-r--r-- 1 bin  bin 192802 Nov 12 04:08 _xfm

The srch directory holds the inverted index. The build script is run nightly: 

   1  #!/bin/ksh
   2  #
   3  # Index my LOG-files.
   4  #
   5  # "-cm" is to ignore files which are not modified.
   6  # "-cl" is to clean up data of overwritten documents.

   7  test -f /search/estraier/SETUP && . /search/estraier/SETUP
   8  logmsg start

   9  if test -d "$dbname"; then
  10      opts='-cl -sd -ft -cm'
  11  else
  12      opts='-sd -ft'
  13  fi

  14  locate /LOG | grep -v /archive/old-logfiles/ | grep '/LOG$' > $flist
  15  test -s "$flist" || cleanup no LOG files found, exiting

  16  estcmd gather $opts $dbname - < $flist
  17  estcmd extkeys $dbname
  18  estcmd optimize $dbname
  19  estcmd purge -cl $dbname
  20  cleanup

Here's a line-by-line description of the script:

7 test -f /search/estraier/SETUP && . /search/estraier/SETUP
Set commonly-used variables
8 logmsg start
Write a message to the system log that looks like this: 
  Oct 27 04:06:55 hostname build-logs: start
9-13 if test -d "$dbname" ...
If the index directory already exists, append to an existing index, otherwise create a brand-new index
14 locate /LOG | grep -v /archive/old-logfiles/ | grep '/LOG$' > $flist
Find all files with a basename of LOG on the system, and exclude crufty old logfiles I don't care about.
15 test -s "$flist" || cleanup no LOG files found, exiting
If there aren't any logfiles, write something to the system log, clean up any work files, and exit
16 estcmd gather $opts $dbname - < $flist
Pass the logfiles found to the indexer
17 estcmd extkeys $dbname
Create a database of keywords extracted from documents
18 estcmd optimize $dbname
Optimize the index and clean up dispensable regions
19 estcmd purge -cl $dbname
Purge anything about files which no longer exist
20 cleanup
Write an ending message to the system log, clean up, and exit

Options used to generate the inverted index are covered in the "estcmd" manual page:

I'll go through searching this index later.

I use slightly different versions of this script to index all sorts of things, so common code is all in the "SETUP" file: 

   1  # Common environment variables and settings.
   2  #
   3  # /usr/local/share/hyperestraier/filter must be included in
   4  # the PATH if you're going to use external filters to extract keywords
   5  # from any documents.

   6  PATH=/usr/local/bin:/opt/sfw/bin:/bin:/sbin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
   7  PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/share/hyperestraier/filter
   8  export PATH
   9  umask 022

  10  # Syslog tag and starting directory
  11  cwd=`pwd`
  12  b=`basename $cwd`
  13  tag="`basename $0`-$b"
  14  unset b

  15  # Search db to be created or updated
  16  dbname=srch

  17  # Scratch files
  18  tmp="$tag.tmp.$$"
  19  flist="$tag.flist.$$"

  20  # die: prints an optional argument to stderr and exits.
  21  #    A common use for "die" is with a test:
  22  #         test -f /etc/passwd || die "no passwd file"
  23  #    This works in subshells and loops, but may not exit with
  24  #    a code other than 0.

  25  die () {
  26      echo "$tag: error: $*" 1>&2
  27      exit 1
  28  }

  29  # logmsg: prints a message to the system log.
  30  # expects variable "$tag" to hold the program basename.
  31  #
  32  # If CALLER environment variable is set, this is being run from cron;
  33  # write to the system log.  Otherwise write to stdout.

  34  logmsg () {
  35      case "$CALLER" in
  36          "") date "+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S $tag: $*" ;;
  37          *)  logger -t $tag "$*" ;;
  38      esac
  39  }

  40  # cleanup: remove work files and exit.

  41  cleanup () {
  42      case "$#" in
  43          0) logmsg done ;;
  44          *) logmsg "$*" ;;
  45      esac

  46      test -f $flist && rm $flist
  47      test -f $tmp   && rm $tmp
  48      exit 0
  49  }

4.2. Web interface

Hyperestraier also provides a CGI program to handle browser searches. Let's say you want to search all the .htm files on your workstation. If your document root is /web/docs, here's how you could index it: 

me% cd /search/estraier/web

me% ls -lF
-rwxr-xr-x 1 bin  bin     991 Jan 12  2008 build*
drwxr-xr-x 6 bin  bin     512 Oct 27 05:38 srch/

me% % ls -lF srch
drwxr-xr-x 5 bin  bin     512 Jan 13  2008 _attr/
-rw-r--r-- 1 bin  bin 4630443 Oct 27 05:38 _aux
-rw-r--r-- 1 bin  bin 1824281 Oct 27 05:38 _fwm
drwxr-xr-x 2 bin  bin     512 Oct 27 05:36 _idx/
drwxr-xr-x 5 bin  bin     512 Jan 13  2008 _kwd/
-rw-r--r-- 1 bin  bin  414384 Oct 27 05:38 _list
-rw-r--r-- 1 bin  bin     284 Oct 27 05:38 _meta
drwxr-xr-x 9 bin  bin     512 Jan 13  2008 _text/
-rw-r--r-- 1 bin  bin  611407 Oct 27 05:38 _xfm

me% nl build
   1  #!/bin/ksh
   2  #
   3  # Index my web files.
   4  #
   5  # "-cm" is to ignore files which are not modified.
   6  # "-cl" is to clean up data of overwritten documents.

   7  test -f /search/estraier/SETUP && . /search/estraier/SETUP
   8  logmsg start

   9  dir=/web/docs
  10  text='-ft'
  11  html='-fh'

  12  # If the search directory exists, then update it with
  13  # recently-modified files.

  14  if test -d "$dbname"; then
  15      opts='-cl -sd -cm'
  16      findopt="-newer $dbname/_fwm"
  17  else
  18      opts='-sd'
  19      findopt=
  20  fi

  21  # Get a list of all text files under my webpage.

  22  gfind $dir -type f $findopt -print0 > $flist

  23  if test -s "$flist"
  24  then
  25    gxargs -0 file -N < $flist | grep ": .* text" > $tmp
  26  else
  27    cleanup nothing to do, exiting
  28  fi

  29  # Index non-HTML files as text, and HTML files as (surprise) HTML.

  30  grep -v 'HTML document text' $tmp |
  31    sed -e 's/: .* text.*//' |
  32    estcmd gather $opts $text $dbname -

  33  grep 'HTML document text' $tmp |
  34    sed -e 's/: .* text.*//' |
  35    estcmd gather $opts $html $dbname -

  36  estcmd extkeys $dbname
  37  estcmd optimize $dbname
  38  estcmd purge -cl $dbname
  39  cleanup

Here's a line-by-line description of the script. I'm assuming you use the GNU versions of "find" and "xargs", and a reasonably recent version of "file" that understands the "-N" (no padding of filenames to align them) option.

9 dir=/web/docs
Set the directory we're going to index
10 text='-ft'
Option for indexing plain-text files
11 html='-fh'
Option for indexing html files
14-20 if test -d "$dbname" ...
If the search directory exists, we're appending to the index. Look for files newer than "_fwm" file in the index directory. Otherwise, we're creating a new index, and find doesn't need any additional options
22 gfind $dir -type f $findopt -print0 > $flist
List all regular files under the document root, and use the null character as a record separator instead of a newline in case we have spaces or other foolishness in the filenames.
23-28 if test -s "$flist" ...
If we find any regular files, run "file" on each one, and keep only the ones that are some type of text. Otherwise print a message and bail out.
30 grep -v 'HTML document text' $tmp |
Look for anything that's not HTML in the "file" output,
31 sed -e 's/: .* text.*//' |
keep just the filename,
32 estcmd gather $opts $text $dbname -
and pass it to the indexer with a filetype of text
33 grep 'HTML document text' $tmp |
Look for anything that is HTML in the "file" output,
34 sed -e 's/: .* text.*//' |
keep just the filename,
35 estcmd gather $opts $html $dbname -
and pass it to the indexer with a filetype of html
36 estcmd extkeys $dbname
Create a database of keywords extracted from documents
37 estcmd optimize $dbname
Optimize the index and clean up dispensable regions
38 estcmd purge -cl $dbname
Purge anything about files which no longer exist
39 cleanup
Clean up and exit.

You need one more thing before your web search is ready: configuration files showing Hyperestraier how to change a URL into a filename, how to display results, what type of help to provide, and where the index is. Put these files wherever your CGI stuff lives: 

-rwxr-xr-x 1 bin  bin  67912 Jan  4  2008 /web/cgi-bin/estseek*
-rw-r--r-- 1 bin  bin   1300 Sep  5  2007 /web/cgi-bin/estseek.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 bin  bin   5235 Jan 11  2007 /web/cgi-bin/estseek.help
-rw-r--r-- 1 bin  bin   6700 Jan 11  2007 /web/cgi-bin/estseek.tmpl
-rw-r--r-- 1 bin  bin   1961 Aug  8  2007 /web/cgi-bin/estseek.top

Here's the estseek.conf file for my workstation webpage: 

   1  #----------------------------------------------------------------
   2  # Configurations for estseek.cgi and estserver
   3  #----------------------------------------------------------------

   4  # path of the database
   5  indexname: /search/estraier/web/srch

   6  # path of the template file
   7  tmplfile: estseek.tmpl

   8  # path of the top page file
   9  topfile: estseek.top

  10  # help file
  11  helpfile: estseek.help

  12  # expressions to replace the URI of each document (delimited with space)
  13  replace: ^file:///web/docs/{{!}}https://example.com/
  14  replace: /index\.html?${{!}}/
  15  replace: /index\.htm?${{!}}/

  16  # LOCAL ADDITIONS from previous version

  17  lockindex: true
  18  pseudoindex:
  19  showlreal: false
  20  deftitle: Hyper Estraier: a full-text search system for communities
  21  formtype: normal
  22  #perpage: 10 100 10
  23  perpage: 10,20,30,40,50,100
  24  attrselect: false
  25  attrwidth: 80
  26  showscore: true

  27  extattr: author|Author
  28  extattr: from|From
  29  extattr: to|To
  30  extattr: cc|Cc
  31  extattr: date|Date

  32  snipwwidth: 480
  33  sniphwidth: 96
  34  snipawidth: 96
  35  condgstep: 2
  36  dotfidf: true
  37  scancheck: 3
  38  phraseform: 2
  39  dispproxy:
  40  candetail: true
  41  candir: false
  42  auxmin: 32
  43  smlrvnum: 32
  44  smlrtune: 16 1024 4096
  45  clipview: 2
  46  clipweight: none
  47  relkeynum: 0
  48  spcache:
  49  wildmax: 256
  50  qxpndcmd:
  51  logfile:
  52  logformat: {time}\t{REMOTE_ADDR}:{REMOTE_PORT}\t{cond}\t{hnum}\n

  53  # END OF FILE

You only need to change lines 5 and 13.

5 indexname: /search/estraier/web/srch
Where to find the inverted index.
7, 9, 11
Templates for displaying help and search results.
13 replace: ^file:///web/docs/{{!}}https: //example.com/
How to translate search results from a pathname (/web/docs/xyz) to a URL.

Here's a screenshot of a search for "nanoblogger":

Estseek output

Notice the time needed (0.002 sec) to search nearly 27,000 documents.

The "detail" link at the bottom of each hit will display file modification time, size, etc. The "similar" link will search for any files similar to this one.

4.3. Indexing all your files

I run this script nightly to make or update indexes for all my document collections. 

   1  #!/bin/ksh
   2  # Re-index any folders containing an executable "build" script.

   3  PATH=/usr/local/bin:/bin:/sbin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
   4  export PATH
   5  umask 022

   6  tag=`basename $0`
   7  CALLER=$tag    # used by called scripts
   8  export CALLER

   9  top="/search/estraier"
  10  logfile="$top/BUILDLOG"

  11  die () {
  12      echo "$@" >& 2
  13      exit 1
  14  }

  15  logmsg () {
  16      ( echo; echo "`date`: $@" ) >> $logfile
  17  }

  18  # Update the index for each group of files.
  19  # Skip any group with a "stop" file.

  20  cd $top || die "cannot cd to $top"
  21  test -f $logfile && rm $logfile
  22  cp /dev/null README

  23  for topic in *
  24  do
  25      if test -d "$topic" -a -x "$topic/build"
  26      then
  27          if test -f "$topic/stop"
  28          then
  29              logmsg skipping $topic
  30          else
  31              logmsg starting $topic
  32              ( cd $topic && ./build 2>&1 ) >> $logfile

  33              ( echo "`date`: $topic"
  34                test -d $topic/srch && estcmd inform $topic/srch
  35                echo )                      >> README
  36          fi
  37      fi
  38  done

  39  logmsg DONE

  40  # Clean up and link the logfile.

  41  sedscr='
  42  /passed .old document./d
  43  /: passed$/d
  44  /filling the key cache/d
  45  /cleaning dispensable/d
  46  s/^estcmd: INFO:/  estcmd: INFO:/
  47  '

  48  sed -e "$sedscr" $logfile > $logfile.n && mv $logfile.n $logfile

  49  dest=`date "+OLD/%Y/%m%d"`
  50  ln $logfile $top/$dest || die "ln $logfile $top/$dest failed"
  51  exit 0
7 CALLER=$tag
Used by any called scripts to send output to syslog.
23-39
Looks for any directory beneath /search/estraier that holds a build script, runs each script in turn, logs the results, and creates a summary of indexed documents.
41-48
Cleans up the build log.
49,50
Keeps old buildlogs for comparison, linking to the most recent one: 
+-----OLD
|      +-----2008
|      |      ...
|      |      +-----1111
|      |      +-----1112
|      |      +-----1113
|      |      +-----1114  [linked to the buildlog created on 14 Nov]

Here's part of the summary: 

Fri Nov 14 04:07:48 EST 2008: home
number of documents: 16809
number of words: 577110
number of keywords: 87211
file size: 116883727
inode number: 139
attribute indexes:
known options:

Fri Nov 14 04:08:38 EST 2008: logs
number of documents: 3229
number of words: 110521
number of keywords: 21896
file size: 19354219
inode number: 10
attribute indexes:
known options:

[...]

Here's the script to search any (or all) document collections for a string: 

   1  #!/bin/ksh
   2  #
   3  # NAME:
   4  #    srch
   5  #
   6  # SYNOPSIS:
   7  #    srch [-ev] [-cfhlmnrstuw] pattern
   8  #
   9  # DESCRIPTION:
  10  #    Look through all Estraier DBs for "pattern".
  11  #    Default behavior (no options) is to search all DBs.
  12  #
  13  # OPTIONS:
  14  #    -e    exact phrase search: don't insert AND between words
  15  #    -v    print the version and exit
  16  #
  17  #    -c    search source-code index
  18  #    -f    search index of mail headers received FROM people
  19  #    -h    search home index
  20  #    -l    search logs index
  21  #    -m    search mail-unread index
  22  #    -n    search notebook index
  23  #    -p    search PDF index
  24  #    -r    search root index
  25  #    -s    search mail-saved index
  26  #    -t    search index of mail headers sent TO people
  27  #    -u    search usr index
  28  #    -w    search web index
  29  #
  30  # AUTHOR:
  31  #    Karl Vogel <vogelke@pobox.com>
  32  #    Sumaria Systems, Inc.

  33  . /usr/local/lib/ksh/path.ksh
  34  . /usr/local/lib/ksh/die.ksh
  35  . /usr/local/lib/ksh/usage.ksh
  36  . /usr/local/lib/ksh/version.ksh

  37  # List just the folders in a directory.

  38  folders () {
  39      dir=$1
  40      ls -l $dir | grep '^d' | awk '{print $9}' | grep -v '[A-Z]'
  41  }

  42  # Command-line options.

  43  sect=
  44  exact='no'

  45  while getopts ":echlmnprstuvw" opt; do
  46      case $opt in
  47          c) sect="$sect src" ;;
  48          e) exact='yes' ;;
  49          h) sect="$sect home" ;;
  50          l) sect="$sect logs" ;;
  51          m) sect="$sect mail-unread" ;;
  52          n) sect="$sect notebook" ;;
  53          p) sect="$sect pdf" ;;
  54          r) sect="$sect root" ;;
  55          s) sect="$sect mail-saved" ;;
  56          t) sect="$sect sent" ;;
  57          u) sect="$sect usr" ;;
  58          w) sect="$sect web" ;;
  59          v) version; exit 0 ;;
  60          \?) usage "-$OPTARG: invalid option"; exit 1 ;;
  61      esac
  62  done
  63  shift $(($OPTIND - 1))

  64  # Sanity checks.

  65  top='/search/estraier'
  66  test -d "$top" || die "$top: not found"

  67  # If exact search specified, search for that phrase.
  68  # If not, create search pattern: "word1 AND word2 AND word3 ..."
  69  # Run the search, 40 hits maximum.
  70  # Ignore password-checker stuff; that holds dictionaries.

  71  case "$@" in
  72      "") usage "no pattern to search for" ;;
  73      *)  ;;
  74  esac

  75  case "$exact" in
  76      yes) pattern="$@" ;;
  77      no)  pattern=`echo $@ | sed -e 's/ / AND /g'` ;;
  78  esac

  79  echo "Searching for: $pattern"

  80  # Top-level directories are sections.

  81  case "$sect" in
  82      "") sect=`folders $top` ;;
  83      *)  ;;
  84  esac

  85  for db in $sect; do
  86      if test -d "$top/$db/srch"; then
  87          echo
  88          echo "=== $db"

  89          estcmd search -vu -max 40 $top/$db/srch "$pattern" |
  90              grep -v /src/security/password-checker/ |
  91              grep 'file://' |
  92              sed -e 's!^.*file://! !'
  93      fi
  94  done

  95  exit 0

There isn't too much new in this script:

33-36
Keeps commonly-used functions from cluttering things up. In particular, usage.ksh displays the comment header as a help message in case the user botches the command line.
89 estcmd search -vu -max 40 $top/$db/srch "$pattern" |
Does the actual search, displaying a maximum of 40 results as URLs.
90 grep -v /src/security/password-checker/ |
Keeps password-cracking dictionaries from showing a hit for just about everything.

Here's what a basic search looks like: 

me% srch hosehead
Searching for: hosehead

=== home
 /home/me/mail/replies/apache-redirect

=== logs
 /src/www/sysutils/LOG

=== mail-saved

=== mail-unread

=== notebook
 /home/me/notebook/2005/0701/console-based-blogging

=== pdf

=== root

=== sent

=== src
 /src/opt/rep/RCS/sample%2Cv

=== usr

=== web

Results are URL-ified, so files containing special characters like commas will have them escaped: 

/src/opt/rep/RCS/sample,v     ==>    /src/opt/rep/RCS/sample%2Cv

4.4. Using attributes

One of the nicer features of Hyperestraier is the ability to "dump" an inverted index in a way that lets you see exactly how any one source document contributes to the index as a whole. You can see how words are weighted, and better yet, you can create similar files with additional information and use them to create the index.

The files dumped from an inverted index are referred to as "draft files", and they have an extension of ".est". Here's a sample index of two documents: 

me% cd /tmp/websearch
me% ls -lF doc*
-rw-r--r-- 1 bin  bin 186 Oct 28 19:42 doc1
-rw-r--r-- 1 bin  bin 143 Oct 28 19:42 doc2

me% cat -n doc1
     1  One of the nicer features of Hyperestraier is the ability to "dump"
     2  an inverted index in a way that lets you see exactly how any one
     3  source document contributes to the index as a whole.

me% cat -n doc2
     1  You can see how words are weighted, and better yet, you can create
     2  similar files with additional information and use them to create
     3  the index.

me% ls doc* | estcmd gather -sd -ft srch -
estcmd: INFO: reading list from the standard input ...
estcmd: INFO: 1 (doc1): registered
estcmd: INFO: 2 (doc2): registered
estcmd: INFO: finished successfully: elapsed time: 0h 0m 1s

Now, let's look at the internal (draft) documents that Hyperestraier actually uses. First, list all the documents in the index: 

me% estcmd list srch
1       file:///tmp/websearch/doc1
2       file:///tmp/websearch/doc2

Here are the drafts: 

me% estcmd get srch 1 > doc1.est
me% estcmd get srch 2 > doc2.est

me% cat doc1.est
@digest=ebc6fbd6e5d2f6d399a29b179349d4f9
@id=1
@mdate=2008-10-28T23:42:14Z
@size=186
@type=text/plain
@uri=file:///tmp/websearch/doc1
_lfile=doc1
_lpath=file:///tmp/websearch/doc1
_lreal=/tmp/websearch/doc1

One of the nicer features of Hyperestraier is the ability to "dump"
an inverted index in a way that lets you see exactly how any one source
document contributes to the index as a whole.

me% cat doc2.est
@digest=aeaeaa3ea042859cfac3279d75d20e7c
@id=2
@mdate=2008-10-28T23:42:54Z
@size=143
@type=text/plain
@uri=file:///tmp/websearch/doc2
_lfile=doc2
_lpath=file:///tmp/websearch/doc2
_lreal=/tmp/websearch/doc2

You can see how words are weighted, and better yet, you can create
similar files with additional information and use them to create the index.

You can dump all document drafts from a given index by looking for the string '[UVSET]', which is present in all results: 

me% estcmd search -max -1 -dd srch '[UVSET]'
--------[02D18ACF20A3A379]--------
VERSION 1.0
NODE    local
HIT     2
HINT#1  [UVSET] 2
TIME    0.000535
DOCNUM  2
WORDNUM 46

--------[02D18ACF20A3A379]--------
00000001.est    file:///tmp/websearch/doc1
00000002.est    file:///tmp/websearch/doc2
--------[02D18ACF20A3A379]--------:END

me% ls -lF *.est
-rw-r--r-- 1 bin  bin    478 Oct 28 19:51 00000001.est
-rw-r--r-- 1 bin  bin    435 Oct 28 19:51 00000002.est

You can also dump a range of document drafts. If your index contains at least 90 documents, you can extract drafts 20-90 like this: 

me% estcmd search -max -1 -dd -attr '@id NUMBT 20 90' srch

By using .est files, you gain complete control over the contents of the searchable index, so you can do things like:

Let's add an attribute called "category"; the first document is ok, but the second one is junk. I've modified the draft files to hold only what's needed to create an index by using them as the source: 

me% cat doc1.est
@title=doc1
@mdate=2008-10-28T23:42:14Z
@type=text/plain
@uri=file:///tmp/websearch/doc1
category=good

One of the nicer features of Hyperestraier is the ability to "dump"
an inverted index in a way that lets you see exactly how any one source
document contributes to the index as a whole.

me% cat doc2.est
@title=doc2
@mdate=2008-10-28T23:42:54Z
@type=text/plain
@uri=file:///tmp/websearch/doc2
category=junk

You can see how words are weighted, and better yet, you can create
similar files with additional information and use them to create the index.

Now, rebuild the index using just the draft files. We'll create an attribute index for "category", and tell the indexer that "category" is a string: 

me% rm -rf srch

me% estcmd create -tr -xl -si -attr category str srch
estcmd: INFO: status: name=srch dnum=0 wnum=0 fsiz=19924864 ...

me% ls *.est | estcmd gather -sd -fe srch -
estcmd: INFO: reading list from the standard input ...
estcmd: INFO: finished successfully: elapsed time: 0h 0m 0s

me% estcmd extkeys srch
estcmd: INFO: status: name=srch dnum=2 wnum=46 fsiz=20058247 ...
estcmd: INFO: finished successfully: elapsed time: 0h 0m 0s

me% estcmd optimize srch
estcmd: INFO: status: name=srch dnum=2 wnum=46 fsiz=20059685 ...
estcmd: INFO: finished successfully: elapsed time: 0h 0m 0s

me% estcmd purge -cl srch
estcmd: INFO: status: name=srch dnum=2 wnum=46 fsiz=356996 crnum=0 csiz=0 ...
estcmd: INFO: finished successfully: elapsed time: 0h 0m 0s

The word "index" is present in both documents: 

me% estcmd search -vu srch index
--------[02D18ACF7633EB35]--------
VERSION 1.0
NODE    local
HIT     2
HINT#1  index   2
TIME    0.000705
DOCNUM  2
WORDNUM 46
VIEW    URI

--------[02D18ACF7633EB35]--------
1       file:///tmp/websearch/doc1
2       file:///tmp/websearch/doc2
--------[02D18ACF7633EB35]--------:END

However, if we're only interested in the documents where the category equals "good": 

me% estcmd search -vu -attr "category STREQ good" srch index
--------[0F3AA0F81FAA276B]--------
VERSION 1.0
NODE    local
HIT     1
HINT#1  index   2
TIME    0.000938
DOCNUM  2
WORDNUM 46
VIEW    URI

--------[0F3AA0F81FAA276B]--------
1       file:///tmp/websearch/doc1
--------[0F3AA0F81FAA276B]--------:END

If all you're interested in is the attribute, you don't need to specify a search string after the index name. Attributes beginning with an @ sign are reserved for use as system attributes; the Hyperestraier documentation covers this in more detail.

Now, let's say you want to improve your search by allowing for misspellings. Metaphone is an algorithm for indexing words by their sound when pronounced in English. For example, the metaphone version of the word "document" is TKMNT.

We'll add some hidden data (the metaphone equivalents for non-trivial words) to each draft file. Hidden data is indented one tab space, and it can be anything that might improve search results: 

me% cat doc1.est
@title=doc1
@mdate=2008-10-28T23:42:14Z
@type=text/plain
@uri=file:///tmp/websearch/doc1
category=good

One of the nicer features of Hyperestraier is the ability to "dump"
an inverted index in a way that lets you see exactly how any one source
document contributes to the index as a whole.
        ABLT AN AS EKSKTL FTRS HL IN INFRTT INTKS IS KNTRBTS LTS NSR
        OF ON PRSTRR SRS TKMNT TMP

me% cat doc2.est
@title=doc2
@mdate=2008-10-28T23:42:54Z
@type=text/plain
@uri=file:///tmp/websearch/doc2
category=junk

You can see how words are weighted, and better yet, you can create
similar files with additional information and use them to create the index.
        0M ANT AR ATXNL BTR FLS INFRMXN INTKS KN KRT SMLR US W0 WFTT WRTS YT

The index already exists, so we just need to update it: 

me% ls *.est | estcmd gather -cl -sd -fe -cm srch -
me% estcmd extkeys srch
me% estcmd optimize srch
me% estcmd purge -cl srch

The word "information" is in doc2, and the metaphone version is present in the hidden part as INFRMXN. Searching: 

me% estcmd search -vu srch INFRMXN
--------[064867496E54B5A4]--------
VERSION 1.0
NODE    local
HIT     1
HINT#1  infrmxn 1
TIME    0.000721
DOCNUM  2
WORDNUM 75
VIEW    URI

--------[064867496E54B5A4]--------
4       file:///tmp/websearch/doc2
--------[064867496E54B5A4]--------:END

If your search front-end translates terms into their metaphone equivalents, then you could look for those if the original search came back with nothing. This can be very handy when looking up people's names.

4.5. Fake documents

The best thing about draft files is the ability to use them in place of real documents. When you index things, the process is usually something like this:

Using draft files, you can do this instead:

Suppose you wanted to index your compiled binaries for some bizarre reason. Among other things, binaries can yield strings (including version information), library dependencies, and functions provided by external libraries: 

me% ls -lF /usr/local/sbin/postfix
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root   root   262268 Jan  3  2008 /usr/local/sbin/postfix*

me% strings -a /usr/local/sbin/postfix > pf-str.est
[add title, mdate, category lines...]

me% cat pf-str.est
@title=pf-str
@mdate=2008-11-15T01:10:56Z
@type=text/plain
@uri=file:///usr/local/sbin/postfix/strings
category=str

...
sendmail_path
/usr/lib/sendmail
mailq_path
/usr/bin/mailq
newaliases_path
/usr/bin/newaliases
manpage_directory
/usr/local/man
sample_directory
/etc/postfix
readme_directory
html_directory
/dev/null
open /dev/null: %m
-c requires absolute pathname
MAIL_CONFIG
MAIL_DEBUG
MAIL_VERBOSE
PATH
command_directory
daemon_directory
queue_directory
config_directory
mail_owner
setgid_group
bad VERP delimiter character count
...

me% ldd /usr/local/sbin/postfix | awk '{print $1, $3}' | sort > pf-ldd.est
[add title, mdate, category lines...]

me% cat pf-ldd.est
@title=pf-ldd
@mdate=2008-11-15T01:11:06Z
@type=text/plain
@uri=file:///usr/local/sbin/postfix/libs
category=lib

libc.so.1 /lib/libc.so.1
libdb-4.2.so /opt/sfw/lib/libdb-4.2.so
libdoor.so.1 /lib/libdoor.so.1
libgcc_s.so.1 /usr/sfw/lib/libgcc_s.so.1
libgen.so.1 /lib/libgen.so.1
libm.so.2 /lib/libm.so.2
libmd.so.1 /lib/libmd.so.1
libmp.so.2 /lib/libmp.so.2
libnsl.so.1 /lib/libnsl.so.1
libpcre.so.0 /opt/sfw/lib/libpcre.so.0
libresolv.so.2 /lib/libresolv.so.2
libscf.so.1 /lib/libscf.so.1
libsocket.so.1 /lib/libsocket.so.1
libuutil.so.1 /lib/libuutil.so.1

me% nm /usr/local/sbin/postfix | grep 'FUNC.*UNDEF' |
    tr "|" " " | awk '{print $8}' | sort > pf-func.est
[add title, mdate, category lines...]

me% cat pf-func.est
@title=pf-func
@mdate=2008-11-15T01:11:28Z
@type=text/plain
@uri=file:///usr/local/sbin/postfix/functions
category=func

abort
atexit
chdir
close
db_create
db_version
execvp
exit
fcntl
free
...
strdup
strerror
strrchr
strspn
syslog
time
tolower
tzset
umask
write

You can change the @uri line to whatever you like; I used the full path to the program plus an indicator showing strings, functions, or libraries. If you created draft files for all your binaries and indexed them, you could (say) find any program that depends on the NSL library: 

me% estcmd search -vu -attr "category STREQ lib" srch libnsl
--------[02D18ACF794F8BE9]--------
VERSION 1.0
NODE    local
HIT     1
HINT#1  libnsl  1
TIME    0.001066
DOCNUM  3
WORDNUM 161
VIEW    URI

--------[02D18ACF794F8BE9]--------
4       file:///usr/local/sbin/postfix/libs
--------[02D18ACF794F8BE9]--------:END

5. Troubleshooting

5.1. Running out of memory?

I've used Hyperestraier to index collections exceeding 1,000,000 documents. The indexer would run without complaint under Solaris, but die periodically on FreeBSD with "out of memory" errors. Since I had around 6 Gb of RAM, I was pretty sure memory wasn't the problem, so I recompiled using a version of Doug Lea's malloc and the problem went away.

The most recent malloc sources are here: 

ftp://gee.cs.oswego.edu/pub/misc/malloc-2.8.3.c
ftp://gee.cs.oswego.edu/pub/misc/malloc-2.8.3.h

Here's a Makefile suitable for building and installing the library with GCC: 

CC    = gcc
CPLUS = g++
LIBS  = libmalloc.a libcppmalloc.a
DEST  = /usr/local/lib
INC   = /usr/local/include

all: $(LIBS)

clean:
        rm -f $(LIBS) *.o

cppmalloc.o: malloc.c
        $(CPLUS) -O -c -I. malloc.c -o cppmalloc.o

install: $(LIBS)
        cp $(LIBS) $(DEST)
        cp -p malloc.h $(INC)
        ranlib $(DEST)/libcppmalloc.a
        ranlib $(DEST)/libmalloc.a

libcppmalloc.a: cppmalloc.o
        rm -f libcppmalloc.a
        ar q libcppmalloc.a cppmalloc.o

libmalloc.a: malloc.o
        rm -f libmalloc.a
        ar q libmalloc.a malloc.o

malloc.o: malloc.c
        $(CC) -O -c -I. malloc.c

To build QDBM and Hyperestraier using this library, change the configure commands to include these environment variables: 

LDFLAGS="-L/usr/local/lib -lmalloc" CPPFLAGS="-I/usr/local/include"

5.2. Unwanted documents?

When I searched my home directory for the first time, I got a bunch of unwanted hits from my Mozilla cache. Here's how to get rid of docs without reindexing the entire collection (long lines have been wrapped for readability, and show up as indented).

Move to the directory above the inverted index: 

me% cd /search/estraier/home

me% ls -l
-rwxr-xr-x 1 bin  bin   1305 Nov 11 20:53 build*
drwxr-xr-x 6 bin  bin    512 Nov 14 04:07 srch/

Find the internal Hyperestraier documents representing the cache files: 

me% estcmd list srch | grep Cache
15730 file:///home/me/.mozilla/00gh3zwa.default/Cache/259D0872d01
15729 file:///home/me/.mozilla/00gh3zwa.default/Cache/259D586Cd01
15728 file:///home/me/.mozilla/00gh3zwa.default/Cache/259D59F0d01
15727 file:///home/me/.mozilla/00gh3zwa.default/Cache/4CBA5603d01
15742 file:///home/me/.mozilla/00gh3zwa.default/Cache/5B0BAD96d01
15741 file:///home/me/.mozilla/00gh3zwa.default/Cache/E41E6DC7d01

Delete them: 

me% estcmd out srch 15730
estcmd: INFO: status: name=srch dnum=15592 wnum=553848 fsiz=111428443
    crnum=0 csiz=0 dknum=0
estcmd: INFO: 15730: deleted
estcmd: INFO: closing: name=srch dnum=15591 wnum=553848 fsiz=111428443
    crnum=0 csiz=0 dknum=0

6. Feedback

All scripts used in this article are available here.


Talkback: Discuss this article with The Answer Gang

[BIO]

Karl Vogel is a Solaris/BSD system administrator at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.

He graduated from Cornell University with a BS in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and joined the Air Force in 1981. After spending a few years on DEC and IBM mainframes, he became a contractor and started using Berkeley Unix on a Pyramid system. He likes FreeBSD, trashy supermarket tabloids, Perl, cats, teen-angst TV shows, and movies.


Copyright © 2009, Karl Vogel. Released under the Open Publication License unless otherwise noted in the body of the article. Linux Gazette is not produced, sponsored, or endorsed by its prior host, SSC, Inc.

Published in Issue 158 of Linux Gazette, January 2009

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