PUBLIC-INBOX-INDEX(1) public-inbox user manual PUBLIC-INBOX-INDEX(1)
NAME
public-inbox-index - create and update search indices
SYNOPSIS
public-inbox-index [OPTIONS] INBOX_DIR...
public-inbox-index [OPTIONS] --all
DESCRIPTION
public-inbox-index creates and updates the search, overview and NNTP
article number database used by the read-only public-inbox HTTP and
NNTP interfaces. Currently, this requires DBD::SQLite and DBI Perl
modules. Search::Xapian is optional, only to support the PSGI search
interface.
Once the initial indices are created by public-inbox-index,
public-inbox-mda(1) and public-inbox-watch(1) will automatically
maintain them.
Running this manually to update indices is only required if relying on
git-fetch(1) to mirror an existing public-inbox; or if upgrading to a
new version of public-inbox using the "--reindex" option.
Having the overview and article number database is essential to running
the NNTP interface, and strongly recommended for the HTTP interface as
it provides thread grouping in addition to normal search functionality.
OPTIONS
-j JOBS
--jobs=JOBS
Influences the number of Xapian indexing shards in a
(public-inbox-v2-format(5)) inbox.
See "--jobs" in public-inbox-init(1) for a full description of
sharding.
"--jobs=0" is accepted as of public-inbox 1.6.0 to disable parallel
indexing regardless of the number of pre-existing shards.
If the inbox has not been indexed or initialized, "JOBS - 1" shards
will be created (one job is always needed for indexing the overview
and article number mapping).
Default: the number of existing Xapian shards
-c
--compact
Compacts the Xapian DBs after indexing. This is recommended when
using "--reindex" to avoid running out of disk space while indexing
multiple inboxes.
While option takes a negligible amount of time compared to
"--reindex", it requires temporarily duplicating the entire
contents of the Xapian DB.
This switch may be specified twice, in which case compaction
happens both before and after indexing to minimize the temporal
footprint of the (re)indexing operation.
Available since public-inbox 1.4.0.
--reindex
Forces a re-index of all messages in the inbox. This can be used
for in-place upgrades and bugfixes while NNTP/HTTP server processes
are utilizing the index. Keep in mind this roughly doubles the
size of the already-large Xapian database. Using this with
"--compact" or running public-inbox-compact(1) afterwards is
recommended to release free space.
public-inbox protects writes to various indices with flock(2), so
it is safe to reindex (and rethread) while public-inbox-watch(1),
public-inbox-mda(1) or public-inbox-learn(1) run.
This does not touch the NNTP article number database. It does not
affect threading unless "--rethread" is used.
--all
Index all inboxes configured in ~/.public-inbox/config. This is an
alternative to specifying individual inboxes directories on the
command-line.
--rethread
Regenerate internal THREADID and message thread associations when
reindexing.
This fixes some bugs in older versions of public-inbox. While it
is possible to use this without "--reindex", it makes little sense
to do so.
Available in public-inbox 1.6.0+.
--prune
Run git-gc(1) to prune and expire reflogs if discontiguous history
is detected. This is intended to be used in mirrors after running
public-inbox-edit(1) or public-inbox-purge(1) to ensure data is
expunged from mirrors.
Available since public-inbox 1.2.0.
--max-size SIZE
Sets or overrides "publicinbox.indexMaxSize" on a per-invocation
basis. See "publicinbox.indexMaxSize" below.
Available since public-inbox 1.5.0.
--batch-size SIZE
Sets or overrides "publicinbox.indexBatchSize" on a per-invocation
basis. See "publicinbox.indexBatchSize" below.
When using rotational storage but abundant RAM, using a large value
(e.g. "500m") with "--sequential-shard" can significantly speed up
and reduce fragmentation during the initial index and full
"--reindex" invocations (but not incremental updates).
Available in public-inbox 1.6.0+.
--no-fsync
Disables fsync(2) and fdatasync(2) operations on SQLite and Xapian.
This is only effective with Xapian 1.4+. This is primarily
intended for systems with low RAM and the small (default)
"--batch-size=1m". Users of large "--batch-size" may even find
disabling fdatasync(2) causes too much dirty data to accumulate,
resulting on latency spikes from writeback.
Available in public-inbox 1.6.0+.
--dangerous
Speed up initial index by using in-place updates and denying
support for concurrent readers. This is only effective with Xapian
1.4+.
Available in public-inbox 1.8.0+
--sequential-shard
Sets or overrides "publicinbox.indexSequentialShard" on a per-
invocation basis. See "publicinbox.indexSequentialShard" below.
Available in public-inbox 1.6.0+.
--skip-docdata
Stop storing document data in Xapian on an existing inbox.
See "--skip-docdata" in public-inbox-init(1) for description and
caveats.
Available in public-inbox 1.6.0+.
-E EXTINDEX
--update-extindex=EXTINDEX
Update the given external index (public-inbox-extindex-format(5).
Either the configured section name (e.g. "all") or a directory name
may be specified.
Defaults to "all" if "[extindex "all"]" is configured, otherwise no
external indices are updated.
May be specified multiple times in rare cases where multiple
external indices are configured.
--no-update-extindex
Do not update the "all" external index by default. This negates
all uses of "-E" / "--update-extindex=" on the command-line.
--since=DATESTRING
--after=DATESTRING
--until=DATESTRING
--before=DATESTRING
Passed directly to git-log(1) to limit changes for "--reindex"
FILES
For v1 (ssoma) repositories described in public-inbox-v1-format(5).
All public-inbox-specific files are contained within the
"$GIT_DIR/public-inbox/" directory.
v2 inboxes are described in public-inbox-v2-format(5).
CONFIGURATION
publicinbox.indexMaxSize
Prevents indexing of messages larger than the specified size
value. A single suffix modifier of "k", "m" or "g" is
supported, thus the value of "1m" to prevents indexing of
messages larger than one megabyte.
This is useful for avoiding memory exhaustion in mirrors via
git. It does not prevent public-inbox-mda(1) or
public-inbox-watch(1) from importing (and indexing) a message.
This option is only available in public-inbox 1.5 or later.
Default: none
publicinbox.indexBatchSize
Flushes changes to the filesystem and releases locks after
indexing the given number of bytes. The default value of "1m"
(one megabyte) is low to minimize memory use and reduce
contention with parallel invocations of public-inbox-mda(1),
public-inbox-learn(1), and public-inbox-watch(1).
Increase this value on powerful systems to improve throughput
at the expense of memory use. The reduction of lock
granularity may not be noticeable on fast systems. With SSDs,
values above "4m" have little benefit.
For public-inbox-v2-format(5) inboxes, this value is multiplied
by the number of Xapian shards. Thus a typical v2 inbox with 3
shards will flush every 3 megabytes by default unless
parallelism is disabled via "--sequential-shard" or "--jobs=0".
This influences memory usage of Xapian, but it is not exact.
The actual memory used by Xapian and Perl has been observed in
excess of 10x this value.
This option is available in public-inbox 1.6 or later. public-
inbox 1.5 and earlier used the current default, "1m".
Default: 1m (one megabyte)
publicinbox.indexSequentialShard
For public-inbox-v2-format(5) inboxes, setting this to "true"
allows indexing Xapian shards in multiple passes. This speeds
up indexing on rotational storage with high seek latency by
allowing individual shards to fit into the kernel page cache.
Using a higher-than-normal number of "--jobs" with
public-inbox-init(1) may be required to ensure individual
shards are small enough to fit into cache.
Warning: interrupting "public-inbox-index(1)" while this option
is in use may leave the search indices out-of-date with respect
to SQLite databases. WWW and IMAP users may notice incomplete
search results, but it is otherwise non-fatal. Using
"--reindex" will bring everything back up-to-date.
Available in public-inbox 1.6.0+.
This is ignored on public-inbox-v1-format(5) inboxes.
Default: false, shards are indexed in parallel
publicinbox.<name>.indexSequentialShard
Identical to "publicinbox.indexSequentialShard", but only
affect the inbox matching <name>.
ENVIRONMENT
PI_CONFIG
Used to override the default "~/.public-inbox/config" value.
XAPIAN_FLUSH_THRESHOLD
The number of documents to update before committing changes to
disk. This environment is handled directly by Xapian, refer to
Xapian API documentation for more details.
For public-inbox 1.6 and later, use
"publicinbox.indexBatchSize" instead.
Setting "XAPIAN_FLUSH_THRESHOLD" or
"publicinbox.indexBatchSize" for a large "--reindex" may cause
public-inbox-mda(1), public-inbox-learn(1) and
public-inbox-watch(1) tasks to wait long and unpredictable
periods of time during "--reindex".
Default: none, uses "publicinbox.indexBatchSize"
UPGRADING
Occasionally, public-inbox will update it's schema version and require
a full index by running this command.
CONTACT
Feedback welcome via plain-text mail to <mailto:meta@public-inbox.org>
The mail archives are hosted at <https://public-inbox.org/meta/> and
<http://4uok3hntl7oi7b4uf4rtfwefqeexfzil2w6kgk2jn5z2f764irre7byd.onion/meta/>
COPYRIGHT
Copyright all contributors <mailto:meta@public-inbox.org>
License: AGPL-3.0+ <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.txt>
SEE ALSO
Search::Xapian, DBD::SQLite, public-inbox-extindex-format(5)
public-inbox.git 1993-10-02 PUBLIC-INBOX-INDEX(1)