Release notes for Recoll 1.22.x

Caveats

Some of the input handlers were converted from shell scripts to Python programs, and some helper dependancies changed. For example, you will need to install python-libxml2 and python-libxslt1 in most cases (for replacing xsltproc).

Installing over an older version: 1.19

1.20-22 indexes are fully compatible. Installing 1.22 over an 1.19 index is possible, but there have been small changes in the way compound words (e.g. email addresses) are indexed, so it will be best to reset the index. Still, in a pinch, 1.22 search can mostly use an 1.19 index.

Always reset the index if you do not know by which version it was created (e.g.: you're not sure it's at least 1.18). The best method is to quit all Recoll programs and delete the index directory ( rm -rf ~/.recoll/xapiandb), then start recoll or recollindex.
recollindex -z will do the same in most, but not all, cases. It's better to use the rm method, which will also ensure that no debris from older releases remain (e.g.: old stemming files which are not used any more).

Case/diacritics sensitivity is off by default. It can be turned on only by editing recoll.conf ( see the manual). If you do so, you must then reset the index.

Changes in Recoll 1.22.0

• The main "feature" in recoll 1.22 is that it has a Microsoft Windows version. This is has been tested on Windows 7 and Windows 10, and it works mostly like the Unix version, with the notable exceptions that it has no real-time mode (need to start indexing by hand from the GUI, or arrange something with the command-line recollindex.exe). Also there are a few very Unix-y file types which are not processed on Windows, and the indexer is single-threaded.
• It is now possible to define synonyms groups, used only at query-time to expand the query terms to their defined synonyms. More details.
• Many shell-script input handlers have been converted to Python and are now persistent. Most are compatible with Python3 (the only ones which are not are kept back by the library they use). There are still a few shell handlers, mostly for less used and Linux-only formats. And a single Perl-based one (rclimg, which uses the excellent exiftool Perl library).
• The Unix/Linux build system has been converted to use the autotools in a fairly standard way. The Windows build is based on Qt Creator and MinGW.
• Make dehyphenation (co-worker->coworker in addition to the normal terms) optional, active by default.
• For people using the Firefox web page indexer add-on: a new tool in the GUI to list and delete entries from the Web cache.
• Improved index statistics in the GUI, and improved display while the indexer is working.

Minor releases

• 1.22.4:
  • Fix advanced search 'start search' button doing nothing under qt5.
  • Fix html escaping with newer versions of pdftotext.
  • New Danish and Dutch messages.
• 1.22.3:
  • Python module: do not limit result fetches to initial Xapian result count, which is often underestimated.
  • Small bug fix in the text splitter: which resulted in missing results when matching a file name extension using, e.g. filename:doc$ instead of ext:doc.
  • Added suffix associations for .java and .sql, to fix problems caused by the switch from 'file' to 'xdg-mime'.
• 1.22.2:
  • Small fixes for building the KIO
  • Fixed debian packaging issues.
• 1.22.1:
  • Sidestep bus error in qt exit code by calling _exit() instead of exit() in GUI exit code.
  • Eliminate the dependance of librecoll.so on libX11.
  • Hungarian translation.
  • GUI: enable displaying the Xapian docid in the result list with %x.
  • GUI, advanced search: fix crash which occurred when restoring clause list bigger than the default size (6 clauses).
  • The documentation (user manual and man page) for recoll.conf is now generated from the structured comments in the sample file.