Sphinx requirements, would it work on my Webhostings provider ?

Question

I am still searching for a search engine to be used on my webhosting-providers server (one.com) and still haven't found any.

I have heard great things about Sphinx, what are the requirements to run it?

I have read the manual, doesn't say much, seems like it should work... Just want to ask some professionals first.

I dont have access to mysql configurations... (I mean that I can't open and edit the my.cnf or my.ini file for mysql settings as it isn't my server).

Also, Sphinx doesn't need the mysql database to be 'fulltext' right?

Thanks

Answer 1

No, Sphinx doesn't require the mysql database to be 'fulltext'.

Best if your provider delivered a packaged sphinx (there are packages for some Linux distros, at least Ubuntu).

If you have to compile it, you will need gnu make, a C++ compiler (g++), libexpat and libz libraries, with headers and includes.

You will be able to use the indexer and search daemon normally. Checklist:

1. Prepare data sources (I prefer xmlpipe2, it's a nice layer of separation)
2. Prepare configuration file (sphinx.conf)
3. Run indexer.
4. Run searchd.
5. test search daemon with search utility
6. Run indexer periodically, fetching incremental updates and merging and/or rotating indexes.

SphinxSE is another beast. It allows tight integration of MySQL queries with search engine. But the MySQL must be patched and rebuilt.

Consult the fine manual for more valuable knowledge :-)