Index: README =================================================================== --- README (revision 1220) +++ README (working copy) @@ -35,6 +35,7 @@ More infomation on Tracker can be found http://tracker-project.org + USE CASES Tracker is the most powerful open source metadata database and indexer @@ -42,29 +43,30 @@ framework currently available and becaus indexer and sql database and not a dedicated indexer it has much more powerful use cases: -* Provide search and indexing facilities similiar to those on other systems +* Provide search and indexing facilities similiar to those on other systems. * Common database storage for all first class objects (EG a common music/photo/contacts/email/bookmarks/history database) complete with - additional metadata and tags/keywords + additional metadata and tags/keywords. * Comprehensive one stop solution for all applications needing an object database, powerful search (via RDF Query), first class methods, related - metadata and user definable metadata/tags + metadata and user definable metadata/tags. -* Can provide a full semantic desktop with metadata everywhere +* Can provide a full semantic desktop with metadata everywhere. * Can provide powerful criteria based searching suitable for creating smart - file dialogs and vfolder systems + file dialogs and vfolder systems. + +* Can provide a more intelligent desktop using statistical metadata. -* Can provide a more intelligent desktop using statistical metadata FEATURES * Desktop-neutral design (its a freedesktop product built around other freedesktop technologies like DBus and XDGMime but contains no GNOME - specific dependencies) + specific dependencies). * Very memory efficient and non-leaking (typical RAM usage 4 - 30 MB). Unlike some other indexers, tracker is designed and built to run well on lower @@ -74,76 +76,79 @@ FEATURES * Non-bloated and written in C for maximum efficiency. * Small size and minimal dependencies makes it easy to bundle into various - distro's including live cds. + distros including live cds. * Fast indexing and unobtrusive - no need to index stuff overnight. Tracker - runs at nice+10 so it should have a minimal impact on your system. + runs at nice+10 so it should have a minimal impact on your system. With the + addition of detection of mouse and keyboard events via Tracker-Applet + (described below), there is an option to auto-pause indexing in order to + improve responsiveness. This is in addition to Tracker's built-in check if + there's disk I/O in order to auto-pause, so not to slow other processes. + +* Provides option to disable indexing when running on battery. * Implements the freedesktop specification for metadata - (http://freedesktop.org/wiki/Standards/shared-filemetadata-spec) + (http://freedesktop.org/wiki/Standards/shared-filemetadata-spec). * Extracts embedded File, Image, Document and Audio type metadata from files. * Supports the WC3's RDF Query syntax for querying metadata * Provides support for both free text search (like Beagle/Google) as well as - structured searches using RDF Query + structured searches using RDF Query. * Respond in real time to file system changes to keep its metadata database up - to date and in synch + to date and in sync. -* Fully extendable with custom metadata - you can store, retrieve, register - and search via RDF Query all your own custom metadata +* Fully extensible with custom metadata - you can store, retrieve, register + and search via RDF Query all your own custom metadata. -* Can extract a file's contents as plain text and index them +* Can extract a file's contents as plain text and index them. * Provides text filters for PDF, MS Office, OpenOffice (all versions), HTML and PS files. -* Can provide thumbnailing on the fly - - - -INSTALLATION (from source): +* Can provide thumbnailing on the fly. +* It auto-pauses indexing when running low on diskspace, the amount of which + is configurable. Run time dependencies (also needed for build) : -* Sqlite 3.2+ (Tracker source has an inlined version which is - statically-linked by default due to the lack of guarantee of threadsafety - in distro versions) +* SQLite (3.4) * libdbus (0.60 +) * dbus-glib bindings (0.60 +) -* GLib (2.10) +* GLib (2.14) * zlib * intltool (>=0.3.5) * GMime + Additional recommended packages: -* gstremer 0.10 + plugins for audio/video files to be indexed +* GStreamer 0.10 + plugins for audio/video files to be indexed * xsltproc * w3m * file -* wv (1.0.2+) +* wv (1.0.2 +) * poppler (pdftotext) * libvorbis * libpng * libexif * libgsf * GTK and Gnome stack for GUI tools -* libglade (for tracker-preferences UI) +* libglade (2.5 +) * unac (accent stripper) * exempi * libxml2 The following are necessary if Tracker's deskbar-handler is to be installed: -* python-dev (>= 2.3) -* python-gtk2-dev (>= 2.3) -* deskbar-applet (>= 2.14.2) +* python-dev (>= 2.3 +) +* python-gtk2-dev (>= 2.3 +) +* deskbar-applet (>= 2.16 +) Optional run-time dependency: @@ -151,9 +156,10 @@ Optional run-time dependency: back to gnome-open if not available) + COMPILATION -To compile Tracker, use the following commands : +To compile and install Tracker, use the following commands : ./configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc make @@ -200,12 +206,12 @@ parameters to autogen.sh (EG ./autogen.s --enable-deskbar-applet=(auto, handler, module) : enables support for Deskbar-applet; 'auto' should do since it automatically chooses - whether to install the 'handler' (for Deskbar-applet >=2.14.2) or + whether to install the 'handler' (for Deskbar-applet >=2.16) or the 'module' (for Deskbar-applet >=2.19) --with-deskbar-applet-dir=(directory where Deskbar-applet should find Tracker-handler; this should be automatically detected, perhaps in - /usr/lib/deskbar-applet/{handlers/modules-2.20-compatible}) + /usr/lib/deskbar-applet/{handlers,modules-2.20-compatible}) --disable-gui : disables building of tracker-search-tool @@ -234,6 +240,8 @@ parameters to autogen.sh (EG ./autogen.s --disable-trackerapplet : disables Tracker's notification applet + + RUNNING TRACKER To run Tracker, you need to manually start the Tracker daemon, trackerd. By @@ -269,13 +277,14 @@ from 0 to 3, ranging from least to most Yet another option is --language which allows for specifying the language to use for stemmer and stop-words list. -All the above options (and more) can be set by editing ~/.config/tracker.cfg -which is created with specific defaults when non-existent (EG when -trackerd is ran for the first time). Ensure that you restart trackerd for the -changes to take effect. tracker.cfg also provides options that allows tracker -to only index a subset of your home directory as well as other folders not -in your home directory by setting WatchDirectoryRoots to a semicolon-delimited -list of directories (full path required!) +All the above options (and more) can be set by editing Tracker config file +"~/.config/tracker/tracker.cfg" which is created with specific defaults when +non-existent (EG when trackerd is ran for the first time). Ensure that you +restart trackerd for the changes to take effect. tracker.cfg also provides +options that allows tracker to only index a subset of your home directory as +well as other folders not in your home directory by setting +WatchDirectoryRoots to a semicolon-delimited list of directories (full path +required!) EG: @@ -308,7 +317,7 @@ follows: "fs.inotify.max_user_watches = (number of folders to be watched; default is 8192)" -2) Reboot the system +2) Reboot the system OR (as root on a Debian-like system) "/etc/init.d/procps restart" @@ -326,37 +335,45 @@ program tab and then add /usr/bin/tracke the desktop docs for how to auto start an application for your particular desktop. + + Tracker and Deskbar applet -Tracker is also integrated in GNOME's deskbar applet. Please see that applet -for more info. +Tracker is also integrated in GNOME's deskbar applet. Please see above on how +to get it built. TRACKER TOOLS -Tracker comes with a number of command line apps that you can use: +Tracker comes with a number of utilities that you can use: -"tracker-tag" for setting and searching tags/keywords - -"tracker-stats" - this displays the current number of indexed items by category +"tracker-applet" - notification applet which has various utilities like + displaying Tracker status, indexing progress, and live statistics, + pausing indexing, and launching both TST and tracker-preferences "tracker-extract FILE" - this extracts embedded metadata from FILE and prints -to stdout + to stdout -"tracker-search SEARCHTERM" - this perfoms a google like search using -SEARCHTERM to retrieve all matching files where SEARCHTERM appears in any -searchable metadata +"tracker-files" - returns files filtered by the mime type or their category + (see the manpage) + +"tracker-meta-folder" - return list of files indexed by tracker for a folder + +"tracker-preferences" - GUI tool to set Tracker preferences "tracker-query" - this reads an RDF Query that specifies the search criteria -for various fields. It prints to STDOUT all matching files. You can see some -example queries in the RDF-Query-examples folder. You can run the examples as -"tracker-query < RDFFILE" + for various fields. It prints to STDOUT all matching files. You can see + some example queries in the RDF-Query-examples folder. You can run the + examples as "tracker-query < RDFFILE" + +"tracker-search SEARCHTERM" - this perfoms a google like search using + SEARCHTERM to retrieve all matching files where SEARCHTERM appears in any + searchable metadata + +"tracker-stats" - this displays the current number of indexed items by category "tracker-status" - queries status of trackerd -"tracker-preferences" - GUI tool to set Tracker preferences +"tracker-tag" - used for setting and searching tags/keywords