Table of Contents
Introduction
Sphinx is an open source search engine that allows full-text searches. It is best known for performing searches over large data very efficiently. The data to be indexed can generally come from very different sources: SQL databases, plain text files, HTML files, mailboxes, and so on.
Some key features of Sphinx are:
- High indexing and searching performance
- Advanced indexing and querying tools
- Advanced result set post-processing
- Proven scalability up to billions of documents, terabytes of data, and thousands of queries per second
- Easy integration with SQL and XML data sources, and SphinxQL, SphinxAPI, or SphinxSE search interfaces
- Easy scaling with distributed searches
In this tutorial, we will set up Sphinx with MySQL server using the sample SQL file included in the distribution package. It will give you a basic idea of how to use Sphinx for your project.
Prerequisites
Before you begin this guide, you will need:
- One CentOS 7 server.
- A sudo non-root user, which you can set up by following this tutorial.
- MySQL installed on your server, which you can set up by following the step 2 of this tutorial.
Step 1 — Installing Sphinx
At the time of writing, the latest Sphinx version is *2.2.11*. You can find the latest version on the Sphinx website.
Before installing Sphinx, first you need to install its dependencies.
sudo yum install -y postgresql-libs unixODBC
Move to the tmp directory to download Sphinx's files in an unobtrusive place.
cd /tmp
Download the latest Sphinx version using wget.
wget http://sphinxsearch.com/files/sphinx-2.2.11-1.rhel7.x86_64.rpm
Finally, install it using yum.
sudo yum install -y sphinx-2.2.11-1.rhel7.x86_64.rpm
Now you have successfully installed Sphinx on your server. Before starting the Sphinx daemon, let's configure it.
Step 2 – Creating the Test Database
Here, we'll set up a database using the sample data in the SQL file provided with the package. This will allow us to test that Sphinx search is working later.
Let's import the sample SQL file into the database. First, log in to the MySQL server shell.
mysql -u root -p
Enter the password for the MySQL root user when asked. Your prompt will change to MariaDB>.
Create a dummy database. Here, we're calling it test, but you can name it whatever you want.
CREATE DATABASE <^>test<^>;
Import the example SQL file.
SOURCE /usr/share/doc/sphinx-2.2.11/example.sql;
Then leave the MySQL shell.
quit
Now you have a database filled with the sample data. Next, we'll customize Sphinx's configuration.
Step 3 – Configuring Sphinx
Sphinx's configuration should be in a file called sphinx.conf in /etc/sphinx. The configuration consists of 3 main blocks: index, searchd, and source.
There is a minimal configuration already provided, but we'll provide a new example configuration file for you to use and explain each section so you can customize it later.
First, move the existing sphinx.conf file.
sudo mv /etc/sphinx/sphinx.conf /etc/sphinx/sphinx.conf2
Create a new sphinx.conf file with vi or your favorite text editor.
sudo vi /etc/sphinx/sphinx.conf
Each of the index, searchd, and source blocks are described below. Then, at the end of this step, the entirety of sphinx.conf is included for you to copy and paste into the file.
The source block contains the type of source, username and password to the MySQL server. The first column of the sql_query should be a unique id. The SQL query will run on every index and dump the data to Sphinx index file. Below are the descriptions of each field and the source block itself.
type: Type of data source to index. In our example, this is mysql. Other supported types include pgsql, mssql, xmlpipe2, odbc, and more.
sql_host: Hostname for the MySQL host. In our example, this islocalhost. This can be a domain or IP address.
sql_user: Username for the MySQL login. In our example, this is root.
sql_pass: Password for the MySQL user. In our example, this is the root MySQL user's password.
sql_db: Name of the database that stores data. In our example, this is test.
sql_query: The query thats dumps data from the database to the index.
This is the source block:
[label source block for sphinx.conf]
source src1
{
type = mysql
#SQL settings (for ‘mysql’ and ‘pgsql’ types)
sql_host = localhost
sql_user = root
sql_pass = password
sql_db = test
sql_port = 3306 # optional, default is 3306
sql_query = \
SELECT id, group_id, UNIX_TIMESTAMP(date_added) AS date_added, title, content \
FROM documents
sql_attr_uint = group_id
sql_attr_timestamp = date_added
}
The index component contains the source and the path to store the data.
in
source: Name of the source block. In our example, this is src1.
path: The path to save the index.
[label index block for sphinx.conf]
index test1
{
source = src1
path = /var/lib/sphinx/test1
docinfo = extern
}
The searchd component contains the port and other variables to run the Sphinx daemon.
listen: The port which the Sphinx daemon will run, followed by the protocol. In our example, this is 9306:mysql41.
Known protocols are *:sphinx* (SphinxAPI) and *:mysql41* (SphinxQL)
query_log: The path to save the query log.
pid_file: The path to PID file of Sphinx daemon.
seamless_rotate: Prevents searchd stalls while rotating indexes with huge amounts of data to precache.
preopen_indexes: Whether to forcibly preopen all indexes on startup.
unlink_old: Whether to delete old index copies on successful rotation.
[label searchd block for sphinx.conf]
searchd
{
listen = 9312:sphinx #SphinxAPI port
listen = 9306:mysql41 #SphinxQL port
log = /var/log/sphinx/searchd.log
query_log = /var/log/sphinx/query.log
read_timeout = 5
max_children = 30
pid_file = /var/run/sphinx/searchd.pid
seamless_rotate = 1
preopen_indexes = 1
unlink_old = 1
binlog_path = /var/lib/sphinx/
}
The full configuration to copy and paste is below. The only variable you need to change below is the sql_pass variable in the source block, which is highlighted.
[label The full sphinx.conf file]
source src1
{
type = mysql
sql_host = localhost
sql_user = root
sql_pass = <^>your_root_mysql_password<^>
sql_db = test
sql_port = 3306
sql_query = \
SELECT id, group_id, UNIX_TIMESTAMP(date_added) AS date_added, title, content \
FROM documents
sql_attr_uint = group_id
sql_attr_timestamp = date_added
}
index test1
{
source = src1
path = /var/lib/sphinx/test1
docinfo = extern
}
searchd
{
listen = 9306:mysql41
log = /var/log/sphinx/searchd.log
query_log = /var/log/sphinx/query.log
read_timeout = 5
max_children = 30
pid_file = /var/run/sphinx/searchd.pid
seamless_rotate = 1
preopen_indexes = 1
unlink_old = 1
binlog_path = /var/lib/sphinx/
}
To explore more configurations, you can take a look at the /usr/share/doc/sphinx-2.2.11/sphinx.conf.dist file, which has all the variables explained in detail.
Step 4 — Managing the Index
In this step, we'll add data to the Sphinx index and make sure the index stays up to date using cron.
First, add data to the index using the configuration we created earlier.
sudo indexer --all
You should get something that looks like the following.
[secondary_label Output]
Sphinx 2.2.11-id64-release (95ae9a6)
Copyright (c) 2001-2016, Andrew Aksyonoff
Copyright (c) 2008-2016, Sphinx Technologies Inc (http://sphinxsearch.com)
using config file '/etc/sphinx/sphinx.conf'...
indexing index 'test1'...
collected 4 docs, 0.0 MB
sorted 0.0 Mhits, 100.0% done
total 4 docs, 193 bytes
total 0.006 sec, 29765 bytes/sec, 616.90 docs/sec
total 4 reads, 0.000 sec, 0.1 kb/call avg, 0.0 msec/call avg
total 12 writes, 0.000 sec, 0.1 kb/call avg, 0.0 msec/call avg
In production environments, it is necessary to keep the index up to date. To do that let's create a Cron job. First, open crontab.
crontab -e
The following Cron job will run on every hour and add new data to the index using the configuration file we created earlier. Copy and paste it at the end of the file, then save and close the file.
[label crontab]
@hourly /usr/bin/indexer --rotate --config /etc/sphinx/sphinx.conf --all
Now that Sphinx is fully set up and configured, we can start the service and try it out.
Step 5 — Starting Sphinx
Use systemctl to start the Sphinx daemon.
sudo systemctl start searchd
To check if the Sphinx daemon is running correctly, run:
sudo systemctl status searchd
You should get something that looks like the following.
[secondary_label Output]
● searchd.service - SphinxSearch Search Engine
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/searchd.service; disabled; vendor preset: disabled)
Active: active (running) since Fri 2016-08-19 17:48:39 UTC; 5s ago
. . .
Sphinx is fully customized and running, so we'll check that it's working correctly next.
Step 6 — Testing Search Functionality
Now that everything is set up, let's test the search functionality. Connect to the SphinxQL using the MySQL interface. Your prompt will change to MySQL>.
mysql -h0 -P9306
Let's search a sentence.
SELECT * FROM test1 WHERE MATCH('test document'); SHOW META;
You should get something that looks like the following.
[secondary_label Output]
+------+----------+------------+
| id | group_id | date_added |
+------+----------+------------+
| 1 | 1 | 1465979047 |
| 2 | 1 | 1465979047 |
+------+----------+------------+
2 rows in set (0.00 sec)
+---------------+----------+
| Variable_name | Value |
+---------------+----------+
| total | 2 |
| total_found | 2 |
| time | 0.000 |
| keyword[0] | test |
| docs[0] | 3 |
| hits[0] | 5 |
| keyword[1] | document |
| docs[1] | 2 |
| hits[1] | 2 |
+---------------+----------+
9 rows in set (0.00 sec)
In the result above you can see that Sphinx found 2 matches from our test1 index for our test sentence. The SHOW META; command shows hits per keyword in the sentence as well.
Let's search some keywords.
CALL KEYWORDS ('test one three', 'test1', 1);
You should get something that looks like the following.
[secondary_label Output]
+------+-----------+------------+------+------+
| qpos | tokenized | normalized | docs | hits |
+------+-----------+------------+------+------+
| 1 | test | test | 3 | 5 |
| 2 | one | one | 1 | 2 |
| 3 | three | three | 0 | 0 |
+------+-----------+------------+------+------+
3 rows in set (0.00 sec)
In the result above you can see that in the test1 index, Sphinx found:
- 5 matches in 3 documents for the keyword 'test'
- 2 matches in 1 document for the keyword 'one'
- 0 matches in 0 documents for the keyword 'three'
Now that you've tested Sphinx, you can delete the test database with DROP DATABASE test; if you like.
When you're done, leave the MySQL shell.
quit
Conclusion
In this tutorial, we have shown you how to install Sphinx and make a simple search using SphinxQL and MySQL.
You can also find official native SphinxAPI implementations for PHP, Perl, Python, Ruby and Java. If you are using Nodejs, you can also use the SphinxAPI package.
By using Sphinx, you can easily add a custom search to your site. For more information on using Sphinx, visit the project website.
