Searching with SWISH-E

In the SWISH-E distribution, there's a sample SWISH-E index (called sample.swish-e), and you can do a simple search on it. Try typing this:

  swish-e -f sample.swish-e -w "internet and resources and archie"

This will search the file sample.swish-e for files consisting of the words internet and resources and archie. You should get something back like this:

# SWISH-E format 1.1
search words: internet and resources and archie
# Name: Index of EIT's Web
# Saved as: sample.swish-e
# Counts: 7316 words, 94 files
# Indexed on: 12/03/95 17:50:43 PST
# Description: This is a full index of EIT's web site.
# Pointer: http://www.eit.com/cgi-bin/wwwwais/
# Maintained by: Kevin Hughes (kevinh@eit.com)
1000 http://www.eit.com/web/www.guide/guide.15.html "Guide to Cyberspace 6.1: Index/Glossary" 11566
360 http://www.eit.com/web/netservices.html "Internet Resources List" 48391
.

The results tell you:

1. The format the results are in (so future versions of swish-e or other searching programs know this),
2. The search words you used,
3. Administrative information about the index (so you know who maintains it and how to find the original),
4. A result line - this is made up of:
   • The relevance rank. This number is generated with each result and is the program's "best guess" as to how relevant it thinks the file is to your query. This rank number, which can range from 1 to 1000, depends on a number of factors, such as how many times your search word appears in the file, how many words are in the file, and if the word appears in a title or header tag (if it's an HTML file), among other factors.
   • The path name to the file. This may be an address, such as a URL, or a full path to the file.
   • The title of the file. If this is an HTML file, this is the title. This may also be the name of the file (if there is no title).
   • The size of the file. This size is always in bytes.
5. A period. This signifies the end of the results. A line with a period always signifies the end of swish-e output.

If there are errors, instead of the results list, you may get one of the following error lines. These lines will always be prefixed with err:.

• err: no results

  There were no results of the search.

• err: could not open index file

  Either the index file could not be found or it couldn't be opened.

• err: no search words specified

  No words were specified for searching.

• err: a word is too common

  A search word was used that was too common to give any meaningful feedback.

• err: the index file is empty

  No words are in the index file.

• err: the index file format is unknown

  SWISH-E can't read the particular format of the file.

• err: the Metaname <name> does not exist in the user configuration file.

  The option OKNOMETA is set to NO and a metaname found in one of the files is not in the user configuration file.

Table of Contents

Copyright (C) 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 Hewlett-Packard Company
Originally by Kevin Hughes, kev@kevcom.com, March 11, 1994.
SWISH-E is distributed with no warranty under the terms of the GNU Public License,
Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA
Public questions may be posted to the SWISH-E Discussion.
Document maintained at http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/SWISH-E/Manual/searching.html by the SunSITE Manager.
Last update September 9, 1998. SunSITE Manager: manager@sunsite.berkeley.edu