swish++.conf(5) File Formats Manual swish++.conf(5)
NAME
swish++.conf - SWISH++ configuration file format
DESCRIPTION
The configuration file format used by SWISH++ consists of three types of
lines: blank lines, comments, and variable definitions.
Blank lines
Blank lines, or lines consisting entirely of whitespace, are ignored.
Comments
Comments start with the # character and continue up to and including the
end of the line. While leading whitespace is permitted, comments are
treated as such only if they are on lines by themselves.
Variable definitions
Variable definition lines are of the form:
variable_name argument(s)
where variable_name is a member of one of the types described in the re-
maining sections, and argument(s) are specific to every variable name.
For variable_name, case is irrelevant.
Boolean variables
Variables of this type take one argument that must be one of: f, false,
n, no, off, on, t, true, y, or yes. Case is irrelevant. Variables of
this type are: AssociateMeta, ExtractFilter, FollowLinks, Incremental,
LaunchdCooperation, RecurseSubdirs, SearchBackground, StemWords, and
StoreWordPositions.
Enumeration variables
Variables of this type are just like string variables (see below) except
that the argument must be one of a set of pre-determined values. Case
is irrelevant. Variables of this type are: ResultsFormat and SearchDae-
mon. ResultsFormat must be either: classic or XML. SearchDaemon must
be one of: none, tcp, unix, or both.
Filter variables
Variables of this type are of the form:
pattern command
where pattern is a shell pattern (regular expression) and command is the
command-line to execute the filter.
Within a command, there are a few % substitutions that are done at run-
time:
b Basename of filename.
B Basename minus last extension.
e Extension of filename.
E Second-to-last extension of filename.
f Entire filename.
F Filename minus last extension.
That is: the % and one character immediately after it are substituted as
described in the above table. Substituted filenames are skipped past
and not rescanned for more substitutions, but the remainder of the com-
mand is. To use a literal % or @, simply double it. (For more on fil-
ter variables, see FILTERS below.)
Variables of this type are: FilterAttachment and FilterFile.
Integer variables
Variables of this type take one numeric argument. A special string of
infinity is taken to mean ``the largest possible integer value.'' Case
is irrelevant. Variables of this type are: FilesReserve, ResultsMax,
SocketQueueSize, SocketTimeout, ThreadsMax, ThreadsMin, ThreadTimeout,
TitleLines, Verbosity, WordFilesMax, WordPercentMax, WordsNear, and
WordThreshold.
For WordThreshold, only the super-user can specify a value larger than
the compiled-in default.
Percentage variables
Variables of this type are like integer variables except that if an op-
tional trailing percent sign (%) is present, the value is taken to be a
percentage rather than an absolute number. Variables of this type are:
FilesGrow.
String variables
Variables of this type take one argument that is the remainder of the
line minus leading and trailing whitespace. To preserve whitespace,
surround the argument in either single or double quotes. The quotes
themselves are stripped from the argument, but only if they match.
Variables of this type are: ExtractExtension, Group, IndexFile, PidFile,
ResultSeparator, SocketFile, StopWordFile, TempDirectory, and User.
Set variables
Variables of this type take one or more arguments separated by white-
space. Variables of this type are: ExcludeClass, ExcludeFile, Extract-
File, and ExcludeMeta.
Other variables
Variables of this type are: IncludeFile, IncludeMeta, and SocketAddress.
An IncludeFile configuration file line is of the form:
module_name pattern ...
where module_name is the name of the module (case is irrelevant) to han-
dle the indexing of the filename patterns that follow. Module names
are: text (plain text), HTML (HTML and XHTML), ID3 (ID3 tags), LaTeX
(LaTeX source), Mail (mail and news messages), Man (Unix manual pages),
and RTF (Rich Text Format).
An IncludeMeta configuration file line is of the form:
name[=new_name] ...
It is like a set variable except arguments may optionally be followed by
reassignments. For example, a value of:
adr=address
says to include and index the words associated with the meta name adr,
but to store the name as address in the generated index file so that
queries would use address rather than adr.
A SocketAddress configuration file line is of the form:
[ host : ] port
that is: an optional host and colon followed by a port number. The host
may be one of a host name, an IPv4 address (in dot-decimal notation), an
IPv6 address (in colon notation) if supported by the operating system,
or the * character meaning ``any IP address.'' Omitting the host and
colon also means ``any IP address.''
FILTERS
Filtering files
Via the FilterFile configuration file variable, files matching patterns
can be filtered prior to indexing or extraction. For example, to uncom-
press bzip2'd, gzip'd, and compress'd files prior to indexing or extrac-
tion, the FilterFile variable lines in a configuration file would be:
FilterFile *.bz2 bunzip2 -c %f > @%F
FilterFile *.gz gunzip -c %f > @%F
FilterFile *.Z uncompress -c %f > @%F
Given that, a filename such as foo.txt.gz would become foo.txt. If
files having txt extensions should be indexed, then it will be. Note
that the command on the FilterFile line must not simply be:
gunzip @%f # WRONG!
because gunzip will replace the compressed file with the uncompressed
one.
Here's an example to convert PDF to plain text for indexing using the
xpdf(1) package's pdftotext command:
FilterFile *.pdf pdftotext %f @%F.txt
A file can be filtered more than once prior to indexing or extraction,
i.e., filters can be ``chained'' together. For example, if the uncom-
pression and PDF examples shown above are used together, compressed PDF
files will also be indexed or extracted, i.e., filenames ending with one
of .pdf.bz2, .pdf.gz, or .pdf.Z double extensions.
Note, however, that just because a filename has an extension for which a
filter has been specified does not mean that a file will be filtered and
subsequently indexed or extracted. When index++ or extract++ encounters
a file having an extension for which a filter has been specified, it
performs the filename substitution(s) on it first to determine what the
target filename would be. If the extension of that filename should be
indexed or extracted (because it is among the set of extensions speci-
fied with either the -e or --pattern options or the IncludeFile variable
or is not among the set specified with either the -E or --no-pattern op-
tions or the ExcludeFile variable), then the filter(s) are executed to
create it.
Filtering attachments
Via the FilterAttachment configuration file variable, e-mail attachments
whose MIME types match particular patterns can be filtered and thus in-
dexed. An attachment is written to a temporary file by itself (after
having been base-64 decoded, if necessary) and a filter command is
called on that file.
For example, to convert a PDF attachment to plain text so it can be in-
dexed, the FilterAttachment variable line in a configuration file would
be:
FilterAttachment application/pdf pdftotext %f @%F.txt
MIME types must be specified entirely in lower case. Patterns can be
useful for MIME types. For example:
FilterAttachment application/*word extract++ -f %f > @%F.txt
can be used regardless of whether the MIME type is application/msword
(the official MIME type for Microsoft Word documents) or applica-
tion/vnd.ms-word (an older version).
The MIME types that are built into index++(1) are: text/plain, text/en-
riched (but only if the RTF module is compiled in), text/html (but only
if the HTML module is compiled in), text/*vcard, message/rfc822, multi-
part/something (where something is one of: alternative, mixed, or paral-
lel). FilterAttachment variable lines can override the handling of the
built-in MIME types.
Unlike file filters, attachment filters must convert directly to plain
text and can not be ``chained'' together. (This restriction exists be-
cause there is no way to know what any intermediate MIME types would be
to apply more filters.)
SEE ALSO
bzip(1), compress(1), extract++(1), gunzip(1), gzip(1), index++(1),
pdftotext(1), search++(1), uncompress(1), glob(7)
Nathaniel S. Borenstein. ``The text/enriched MIME Content-type,'' Re-
quest for Comments 1563, Network Working Group of the Internet Engineer-
ing Task Force, January 1994.
David H. Crocker. ``Standard for the Format of ARPA Internet Text Mes-
sages,'' Request for Comments 822, Department of Electrical Engineering,
University of Delaware, August 1982.
Frank Dawson and Tim Howes. ``vCard MIME Directory Profile,'' Request
for Comments 2426, Network Working Group of the Internet Engineering
Task Force, September 1998.
Ned Freed and Nathaniel S. Borenstein. ``Multipurpose Internet Mail Ex-
tensions (MIME) Part One: Format of Internet Message Bodies,'' Request
for Comments 2045, RFC 822 Extensions Working Group of the Internet En-
gineering Task Force, November 1996.
International Standards Organization. ``ISO/IEC 9945-2: Information
Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX) -- Part 2:
Shell and Utilities,'' 1993.
Steven Pemberton, et al. XHTML 1.0: The Extensible HyperText Markup
Language, World Wide Web Consortium, January 2000.
AUTHOR
Paul J. Lucas <pauljlucas@mac.com>
SWISH++ June 16, 2005 swish++.conf(5)
Generated by dwww version 1.16 on Tue Dec 16 03:59:12 CET 2025.