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Xapian: Open source search engine library

xapian.org

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Re: Xapian: Open source search engine library

#11

Post by synergy20 »

frenchman99 wrote: post #9
infocollector wrote: post #3

This project has been around and maintained for more than a decade! Small footprint, good speed. One downside might be GPL v2 for commercial use.

You can always build a small search webservice that you open source and that your proprietary software calls out too, removing the need to open source everything. Linux is GPL too, didn't hinder companies making trillions on top of it.

you mean, don't compile it and link it within my application, instead wrap it as a separate program then call it via rpc remotely or locally?

Re: Xapian: Open source search engine library

#12

Post by the_mitsuhiko »

frenchman99 wrote: post #9
infocollector wrote: post #3

This project has been around and maintained for more than a decade! Small footprint, good speed. One downside might be GPL v2 for commercial use.

You can always build a small search webservice that you open source and that your proprietary software calls out too, removing the need to open source everything. Linux is GPL too, didn't hinder companies making trillions on top of it.

Linux is not a good example because of the syscall exemption. The licensing situation is not at all comparable as xapian’s original point of existence was embedding.

Re: Xapian: Open source search engine library

#13

Post by nanna »

openrisk wrote: post #6

used also by recoll, the desktop search app: https://www.recoll.org/

I use recoll to index and search thousands of pdfs. Because I always have the author name in the filename I can filter queries like this:

Cybernetics OR steering filename:Heidegger ext:pdf

It's an absolute power tool.

Re: Xapian: Open source search engine library

#14

Post by bearjaws »

synergy20 wrote: post #10
infocollector wrote: post #3

This project has been around and maintained for more than a decade! Small footprint, good speed. One downside might be GPL v2 for commercial use.

that's true, wonder if there is alternative that is not gpl

Sonic search https://github.com/valeriansaliou/sonic

Maybe not exactly the same, its a server that you can store documents and then retrieve their ID using a search string.

Re: Xapian: Open source search engine library

#16

Post by Bluestein »

synergy20 wrote: post #10
infocollector wrote: post #3

This project has been around and maintained for more than a decade! Small footprint, good speed. One downside might be GPL v2 for commercial use.

that's true, wonder if there is alternative that is not gpl

Elastic Search and its Amazon fork Opensearch perhaps?

Re: Xapian: Open source search engine library

#17

Post by frenchman99 »

synergy20 wrote: post #11
frenchman99 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can always build a small search webservice that you open source and that your proprietary software calls out too, removing the need to open source everything. Linux is GPL too, didn't hinder companies making trillions on top of it.

you mean, don't compile it and link it within my application, instead wrap it as a separate program then call it via rpc remotely or locally?

Yes, exactly that.

Re: Xapian: Open source search engine library

#19

Post by JackSlateur »

Bluestein wrote: post #16
synergy20 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that's true, wonder if there is alternative that is not gpl

Elastic Search and its Amazon fork Opensearch perhaps?

Xapian is a library, while elastic has a client-server model

Xapian is more like sqlite while elastic would be mariadb

Re: Xapian: Open source search engine library

#20

Post by Bluestein »

JackSlateur wrote: post #19
Bluestein wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Elastic Search and its Amazon fork Opensearch perhaps?

Xapian is a library, while elastic has a client-server model Xapian is more like sqlite while elastic would be mariadb

Thanks for the spot-on, very illuminated comparison.-
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