Re: Recommendations for desktop search tool under Linux
On Sun, Apr 05, 2009, Omer Zak wrote about Re: Recommendations for desktop search tool under Linux: - Linux command line tools like locate, grep, find, vi and probably a few good other dinosaurs which I left out of the list. They do what ... I use those traditional command line tools, too. The problem is that they are very slow when I want to search significant parts of my PC's filesystem. Therefore I need a search tool which I would expect to index the information for easier subsequent retrieval. See above for my not minding the space taken up by those index files. The traditional command-line solution for that was glimpse (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GLIMPSE), which created in advance relatively- small indexes which help narrow down the search to matching files (or group of files) which are then greped normally. This yielded an interesting combination of very small indexes (a few percent of the original data size) and acceptable search speeds (seconds, not minutes). Glimpse is rather old by now (15 years old, actually...), but the ideas behind it are still quite sound and interesting. Udi Manber, the person who wrote Glimpse, later moved to Yahoo, and then moved to Amazon and finally to Google (the black whole which apparently nobody leaves ;-)). -- Nadav Har'El|Wednesday, Apr 8 2009, 14 Nisan 5769 n...@math.technion.ac.il |- Phone +972-523-790466, ICQ 13349191 |Did you sleep well? No, I made a http://nadav.harel.org.il |couple of mistakes. ___ Linux-il mailing list Linux-il@cs.huji.ac.il http://mailman.cs.huji.ac.il/mailman/listinfo/linux-il
Re: Recommendations for desktop search tool under Linux
On Wed, 2009-04-08 at 11:52 +0300, Nadav Har'El wrote: On Sun, Apr 05, 2009, Omer Zak wrote about Re: Recommendations for desktop search tool under Linux: - Linux command line tools like locate, grep, find, vi and probably a few good other dinosaurs which I left out of the list. They do what ... I use those traditional command line tools, too. The problem is that they are very slow when I want to search significant parts of my PC's filesystem. Therefore I need a search tool which I would expect to index the information for easier subsequent retrieval. See above for my not minding the space taken up by those index files. The traditional command-line solution for that was glimpse (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GLIMPSE), which created in advance relatively- small indexes which help narrow down the search to matching files (or group of files) which are then greped normally. This yielded an interesting combination of very small indexes (a few percent of the original data size) and acceptable search speeds (seconds, not minutes). Glimpse is rather old by now (15 years old, actually...), but the ideas behind it are still quite sound and interesting. Udi Manber, the person who wrote Glimpse, later moved to Yahoo, and then moved to Amazon and finally to Google (the black whole which apparently nobody leaves ;-)). Very interesting solution. I do not care about index sizes, but I value very much a search tool, which would be tolerant to misspellings. The Web site at http://webglimpse.net/ has a link to partial Hebrew translation. They promise a free commercial license to people who translate at least 5 pages into an as-yet unsupported language. Is there any interest in an equivalent Free Software project? I also wonder whether it is possible to use plugins of existing search tools (such as Beagle) as front-ends for accessing non-text/plain documents. Happy Passover, --- Omer -- Delay is the deadliest form of denial.C. Northcote Parkinson My own blog is at http://www.zak.co.il/tddpirate/ My opinions, as expressed in this E-mail message, are mine alone. They do not represent the official policy of any organization with which I may be affiliated in any way. WARNING TO SPAMMERS: at http://www.zak.co.il/spamwarning.html ___ Linux-il mailing list Linux-il@cs.huji.ac.il http://mailman.cs.huji.ac.il/mailman/listinfo/linux-il
Re: Recommendations for desktop search tool under Linux
On Sun, 2009-04-05 at 08:39 +0300, Boaz Rymland wrote: Omer Zak wrote: The huge files (index and log files) were not a problem for me. I set aside a separate multi-GB partition for Beagle's use, directing it to use it by an appropriately planted symbolic link. Even if I had lots of diskspace I still wouldn't have liked the fact that beagle waste so much of it and more over, the fact that I need to track its disk usage. But, its a matter of taste of course. I use those traditional command line tools, too. I do not understand why would anyone need to track Beagle's disk usage nowadays, when 500GB hard disks cost only the equivalent of few work hours. It is also information which does not need to be backed up. There is a tradeoff between index size and ease of locating information. I wonder whether there are studies about the smallest index size which still facilitates fast information retrieval according to arbitrary criteria. The problem is that they are very slow when I want to search significant parts of my PC's filesystem. Therefore I need a search tool which I would expect to index the information for easier subsequent retrieval. Right, searching over large subtrees of your FS can be quite slow. There are probably even more downsides to command line tools. Well, nobody's perfect :-) Those command line tools usually do not work from an index (an exception is 'locate'). --- Omer -- 42 is the answer to everything. Food is the answer to everything except obesity. My own blog is at http://www.zak.co.il/tddpirate/ My opinions, as expressed in this E-mail message, are mine alone. They do not represent the official policy of any organization with which I may be affiliated in any way. WARNING TO SPAMMERS: at http://www.zak.co.il/spamwarning.html ___ Linux-il mailing list Linux-il@cs.huji.ac.il http://mailman.cs.huji.ac.il/mailman/listinfo/linux-il
Re: Recommendations for desktop search tool under Linux
On Mon, 06 Apr 2009 07:44:15 +0300, Omer Zak w...@zak.co.il wrote: I do not understand why would anyone need to track Beagle's disk usage nowadays, when 500GB hard disks cost only the equivalent of few work hours. Its a matter of taste and even mood. Its not a must. Just remember that 500GB or even 5TB could just as well be filled up rather quickly by nonchalant bug in beagle or any other indexing tool. After that, it is a matter of choice and any decision of acceptable. Boaz. ___ Linux-il mailing list Linux-il@cs.huji.ac.il http://mailman.cs.huji.ac.il/mailman/listinfo/linux-il
Re: Recommendations for desktop search tool under Linux
1.I am using google desktop search : http://n2b.org/archives/699 2. Good: I use it to search my mail also, works fast and easy. Bad: relay on he browser, I don't know about privacy - can google use my desktop data? 3. Very happy, I like it. On Sat, Apr 4, 2009 at 2:47 AM, Omer Zak w...@zak.co.il wrote: Some time ago, I installed Beagle as my desktop search and information retrieval tool. Then I disabled it as I was not so happy with its computer use hogging combined with weakness in finding retrieving information. Now, after upgrading my PC from Debian Etch to Debian Lenny, I would like to repeat the process of searching for a desktop search tool. The article which I used at the time, and which is available at: http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/columns/desktop_search_tools_gnu_linux_tracker_recoll_strigi_deskbar is from almost two years ago. So I would like to ask the community for recommendations for today's state of the art desktop search tools. The Debian repositories have bewildering array of packages, which might be suitable. So I am asking: 1. Which desktop search tool are you using under Linux? 2. What are its good and bad points? 3. How happy are you with it? Thanks, --- Omer -- Never let beliefs, God or Gods incite war and hatred among human beings. My own blog is at http://www.zak.co.il/tddpirate/ My opinions, as expressed in this E-mail message, are mine alone. They do not represent the official policy of any organization with which I may be affiliated in any way. WARNING TO SPAMMERS: at http://www.zak.co.il/spamwarning.html ___ Linux-il mailing list Linux-il@cs.huji.ac.il http://mailman.cs.huji.ac.il/mailman/listinfo/linux-il -- Nitzan Brumer Http://n2b.org ___ Linux-il mailing list Linux-il@cs.huji.ac.il http://mailman.cs.huji.ac.il/mailman/listinfo/linux-il
Re: Recommendations for desktop search tool under Linux
On Sat, Apr 04, 2009 at 03:54:58PM +0300, Nitzan Brumer wrote: 1.I am using google desktop search : http://n2b.org/archives/699 2. Good: I use it to search my mail also, works fast and easy. Bad: relay on he browser, IIRC most other desktop search tools have more useful interfaces I don't know about privacy - can google use my desktop data? What about permissions? Can other users on the system know the content of your documents (or even that they exist)? How much control do you have over when indexing is run? What file types are supported? Any such tool that is smart enough to allow searching the text of a Hebrew PDF (which is visual Hebrew) -- Tzafrir Cohen | tzaf...@jabber.org | VIM is http://tzafrir.org.il || a Mutt's tzaf...@cohens.org.il || best ICQ# 16849754 || friend ___ Linux-il mailing list Linux-il@cs.huji.ac.il http://mailman.cs.huji.ac.il/mailman/listinfo/linux-il
Re: Recommendations for desktop search tool under Linux
בSaturday 04 April 2009, נכתב על ידי Omer Zak: So I am asking: 1. Which desktop search tool are you using under Linux? Beagle. I dumped it once for the same reasons you described, but recently I went for the hunt again, and found that beagle has the most index plugins, and it indexes almost everything I have. 2. What are its good and bad points? It's not as a hog as it was, it integrates nicely with KDE (kerry). I'm not too impress with its search capabilities, but it does a fairly good job. On occasion I am getting angry with it and closing it until I need it again. 3. How happy are you with it? Pretty happy. --y signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part. ___ Linux-il mailing list Linux-il@cs.huji.ac.il http://mailman.cs.huji.ac.il/mailman/listinfo/linux-il
Re: Recommendations for desktop search tool under Linux
Beagle once created huge log files in its directory under my home dir, which clogged my filesystem. It took a while to find the culprit but afterwards it was pretty fast to purge it from my system :-) . That incident, couple with very little use I had for it, convinced me to drop it altogether. Nobody mentioned the long proven, useful and (very) lean on resources - Linux command line tools like locate, grep, find, vi and probably a few good other dinosaurs which I left out of the list. They do what I want today to the point that I don't feel an urge to find such a tool as you describe. Yes, the downside is considerable as well - they are hard to use to the point that probably the new Linux user (=my mother, if she would have ever considered using Linux...) will never use them. I just mention these tools for the sake of the record :-) Boaz. but yes - not trivial command line for the casual user (=my mother, if she had used Linux in the first place :-) Yuval Hager wrote: בSaturday 04 April 2009, נכתב על ידי Omer Zak: So I am asking: 1. Which desktop search tool are you using under Linux? Beagle. I dumped it once for the same reasons you described, but recently I went for the hunt again, and found that beagle has the most index plugins, and it indexes almost everything I have. 2. What are its good and bad points? It's not as a hog as it was, it integrates nicely with KDE (kerry). I'm not too impress with its search capabilities, but it does a fairly good job. On occasion I am getting angry with it and closing it until I need it again. 3. How happy are you with it? Pretty happy. --y ___ Linux-il mailing list Linux-il@cs.huji.ac.il http://mailman.cs.huji.ac.il/mailman/listinfo/linux-il ___ Linux-il mailing list Linux-il@cs.huji.ac.il http://mailman.cs.huji.ac.il/mailman/listinfo/linux-il
Re: Recommendations for desktop search tool under Linux
On Sat, 2009-04-04 at 21:43 +0300, Boaz Rymland wrote: Beagle once created huge log files in its directory under my home dir, which clogged my filesystem. It took a while to find the culprit but afterwards it was pretty fast to purge it from my system :-) . That incident, couple with very little use I had for it, convinced me to drop it altogether. The huge files (index and log files) were not a problem for me. I set aside a separate multi-GB partition for Beagle's use, directing it to use it by an appropriately planted symbolic link. Nobody mentioned the long proven, useful and (very) lean on resources - Linux command line tools like locate, grep, find, vi and probably a few good other dinosaurs which I left out of the list. They do what I want today to the point that I don't feel an urge to find such a tool as you describe. Yes, the downside is considerable as well - they are hard to use to the point that probably the new Linux user (=my mother, if she would have ever considered using Linux...) will never use them. I just mention these tools for the sake of the record :-) I use those traditional command line tools, too. The problem is that they are very slow when I want to search significant parts of my PC's filesystem. Therefore I need a search tool which I would expect to index the information for easier subsequent retrieval. See above for my not minding the space taken up by those index files. --- Omer -- Wilcox-McCandlish Law of Online Discourse Evolution: The chance of success of any attempt to change the topic or direction of a thread of discussion in a networked forum is directly proportional to the quality of the current content. My own blog is at http://www.zak.co.il/tddpirate/ My opinions, as expressed in this E-mail message, are mine alone. They do not represent the official policy of any organization with which I may be affiliated in any way. WARNING TO SPAMMERS: at http://www.zak.co.il/spamwarning.html ___ Linux-il mailing list Linux-il@cs.huji.ac.il http://mailman.cs.huji.ac.il/mailman/listinfo/linux-il
Re: Recommendations for desktop search tool under Linux
Omer Zak wrote: The huge files (index and log files) were not a problem for me. I set aside a separate multi-GB partition for Beagle's use, directing it to use it by an appropriately planted symbolic link. Even if I had lots of diskspace I still wouldn't have liked the fact that beagle waste so much of it and more over, the fact that I need to track its disk usage. But, its a matter of taste of course. I use those traditional command line tools, too. The problem is that they are very slow when I want to search significant parts of my PC's filesystem. Therefore I need a search tool which I would expect to index the information for easier subsequent retrieval. Right, searching over large subtrees of your FS can be quite slow. There are probably even more downsides to command line tools. Well, nobody's perfect :-) Boaz. ___ Linux-il mailing list Linux-il@cs.huji.ac.il http://mailman.cs.huji.ac.il/mailman/listinfo/linux-il
Recommendations for desktop search tool under Linux
Some time ago, I installed Beagle as my desktop search and information retrieval tool. Then I disabled it as I was not so happy with its computer use hogging combined with weakness in finding retrieving information. Now, after upgrading my PC from Debian Etch to Debian Lenny, I would like to repeat the process of searching for a desktop search tool. The article which I used at the time, and which is available at: http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/columns/desktop_search_tools_gnu_linux_tracker_recoll_strigi_deskbar is from almost two years ago. So I would like to ask the community for recommendations for today's state of the art desktop search tools. The Debian repositories have bewildering array of packages, which might be suitable. So I am asking: 1. Which desktop search tool are you using under Linux? 2. What are its good and bad points? 3. How happy are you with it? Thanks, --- Omer -- Never let beliefs, God or Gods incite war and hatred among human beings. My own blog is at http://www.zak.co.il/tddpirate/ My opinions, as expressed in this E-mail message, are mine alone. They do not represent the official policy of any organization with which I may be affiliated in any way. WARNING TO SPAMMERS: at http://www.zak.co.il/spamwarning.html ___ Linux-il mailing list Linux-il@cs.huji.ac.il http://mailman.cs.huji.ac.il/mailman/listinfo/linux-il
