NAME

       glimpseserver - a server version of the glimpse searching package.

OVERVIEW

       Glimpse  is  an  indexing and query system that allows you to search through all your files very quickly.
       The use of glimpse  in  servers  that  handle  frequent  queries  is  growing,  which  is  why  we  wrote
       glimpseserver  to  make searches more efficient.  Glimpseserver starts a process that listens to queries,
       runs glimpse, and sends the answers back.  The main advantage is that the index is read  only  once  into
       memory saving a lot of IO.  Glimpse communicates with glimpseserver through a given port number.  See the
       warning about security below.

SYNOPSIS

       glimpseserver [ -H dir -K port -J host.  ]

DESCRIPTION

       -H dir specifies the directory of the index.  Similar to the -H option of glimpse.  The default directory
              is  the  value  of  the  environment  variable  $HOME  if that is set, otherwise it is the current
              directory.

       -K port
              this is the TCP port for communication: glimpseserver waits for requests on this port and  clients
              that  want  to search using the index in specified by the -H option must use this port (by calling
              glimpse -K).  The defaults port number is 2001.

       -J host
              the name of the host.  The default is the host where glimpseserver is running, which  is  probably
              the only possibility anyway.

RESTARTING

       If  a  new  index  is  created by running glimpseindex every night, restarting a new glimpseserver is now
       easier: simply send a SIGUSR2 (signal #31 - i.e., "kill -31 pid") to glimpseserver; it then re-reads  the
       NEW  index and is ready to serve requests again.  (A SIGHUP, i.e., signal #1, can also be sent instead of
       SIGUSR2 to make the glimpseserver re-read the new index.)  The recommended way to  do  a  fresh  indexing
       while the server is still running is:
       send SIGSTOP to glimpseserver
       do the indexing
       send SIGUSR2 to glimpseserver
       send SIGCONT to glimpseserver (to ask it to continue after stop)
       The SIGSTOP is required so that glimpseserver doesn't answer any queries while the indexing is going on.

WARNING

       Glimpseserver  should be used only for public servers.  Any client that knows the port number can get any
       information available in the index (and port numbers are not that secret).  When  glimpse  is  run  as  a
       standalone application it requires read permission of the index and all the files.  When glimpse uses the
       -C option to communicate with glimpseserver, glimpse  (the  client)  does  not  require  any  permission,
       because glimpseserver does all the searching.  So, we recommend not to run glimpseserver on any data that
       should be protected.  Glimpseserver is meant to be used for public data.

SEE ALSO

       glimpse(1), glimpseindex(1),

BUGS

       Please submit bug reports or comments at http://webglimpse.net/bugzilla/

AUTHORS

       Udi Manber and Burra Gopal, Department of Computer Science,  University  of  Arizona,  and  Sun  Wu,  the
       National  Chung-Cheng  University,  Taiwan.  Now  maintained  by Golda Velez at Internet WorkShop (Email:
       gvelez@webglimpse.net)

                                                October 13, 1997                                GLIMPSESERVER(1)