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+    <title>Recoll howtos</title>
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+    <meta name="Description" content=
+    "recoll is a simple full-text search system for unix and linux
+    based on the powerful and mature xapian engine">
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+	<li><a href="../../index.html">Home</a></li>
+	<li><a href="../../doc.html">Documentation</a></li>
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+
+      <h1>Creating and using multiple indexes</h1>
+
+      <h2>Why would you want to do this ?</h2>
+      <ul>
+	<li>Easy adjustment of search areas: you can filter
+	  results by using the directory filter in the advanced search
+	  panel, but, if you have separate well defined places where
+	  you store different kind of data, it is easier to maintain
+	  separate index and use the <em>External indexes</em> dialog
+	  to switch them on or off, and it will also yield much better
+	  search performance.</li>
+	<li>Shared indexes: it may be useful to maintain one or
+	  several indexes for shared data, and separate personal
+	  indexes for each user.</li>
+      </ul>
+
+      <h2>How to do it</h2>
+
+      <p>As an example we'll suppose that you
+      have <span class="application">Recoll</span> installed and indexing your
+      home directory, and that you would like to have a separate index
+	for <tt class="filename">/usr/shared/doc</tt>.</p>
+
+      <p>You need to create a separate configuration for the new index,
+	then add it to the external indexes list in the user
+	interface, and activate it as needed. </p>
+      
+      <ol>
+	<li>Create a directory for the new index:
+	  <pre>cd
+mkdir .recoll-sharedoc
+	  </pre>
+	</li>
+	<li>Create a minimal configuration file:
+	  <pre>cd .recoll-sharedoc
+echo "topdirs = /usr/share/doc" > recoll.conf
+	  </pre>
+	</li>
+	<li>Perform initial indexing:
+	  <pre>recollindex -c ~/.recoll-sharedoc</pre>
+	</li>
+	<li>Optionally set up cron to perform nightly indexing, use
+	  <pre>crontab -e</pre>
+	  and insert a line like the following:
+	  <pre>45 20 * * * recollindex -c ~/.recoll-sharedoc</pre>
+	  This would start the indexing at
+	  20:45. <tt class="command">crontab&nbsp;-e</tt> will use the
+	  <tt class="command">vi</tt> editor by default, you can
+	  change this by using the <tt class="command">EDITOR</tt>
+	  environment variable. Exemple:
+	  <pre>EDITOR=kate crontab -e</pre>
+	  Your favorite desktop may also have a dedicated tool to add
+	  <tt class="filename">crontab</tt> entries.
+	</li>
+	<li>Start <tt class="command">recoll</tt> and choose
+	  the <span
+	  class="guimenu">Preferences->External&nbsp;index&nbsp;dialog</span>
+	  menu entry, then click the <span class="guilabel">Browse</span> button
+	  (near the bottom), and select the new index Xapian database
+	  directory:
+	  <pre><tt class="filename">~/.recoll-sharedoc/xapiandb</tt></pre> 
+	  Then click <span class="guilabel">Add&nbsp;index</span>.
+	</li>
+	<li>You can then activate or deactivate the new index by
+	  clicking the box in front of the directory name in the list.
+	</li>
+      </ol>
+
+      <p>When adding an index shared by multiple users, it may
+	be helpful to use
+	the <tt class="variable">RECOLL_EXTRA_DBS</tt> environment
+	variable instead of editing individual configurations, see the
+	manual for more details.</p>
+      
+    </div>
+  </body>
+</html>