Release notes for Recoll 1.22.x

Caveats

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 (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.
• Synonyms: users can define term synonyms groups in ordinary text files. They are used only at query times to expand a query to synonym terms. More details.
• Most input handlers are now compatible with Python3. Actually the only ones which are not are kept back by the library they use. Also most external handlers are now persistent, and quite a few shell-script have been converted to Python for use on Windows.
• The 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.