Ubuntu Manpage: ra-retrieve - retrieve files that match a query for use with remembrance agent software

Provided by: remembrance-agent_2.12-7_amd64

NAME

       ra-retrieve - retrieve files that match a query for use with remembrance agent software

SYNOPSIS

       ra-retrieve [--version] [-v] [-d] <base-dir> [--docnum <docnum>]

DESCRIPTION

       ra-index and ra-retrieve make up the Savant search engine, an information retrieval engine
       designed as a back-end for the Remembrance Agent (RA).  Given a collection of  the  user's
       accumulated  email,  usenet  news articles, papers, saved HTML files and other text notes,
       the RA attempts to find those documents which are most  relevant  to  the  user's  current
       context.   That  is,  it searches this collection of text for the documents which bear the
       highest word-for-word similarity to the text the user is currently editing,  in  the  hope
       that  they  will  also  bear  high  conceptual similarity and thus be useful to the user's
       current work.  With the Emacs front-end, these suggestions are continuously displayed in a
       small  buffer  at the bottom of the user's window.  If a suggestion looks useful, the full
       text can be retrieved with a single command.

       The Remembrance Agent works in two stages.  First, the user's collection of text documents
       is  indexed  into a database saved in a vector format.  After the database is created, the
       other stage of the Remembrance Agent is run from emacs,  where  it  periodically  takes  a
       sample  of text from the working buffer and finds those documents from the collection that
       are most similar.  It summarizes the top documents in a small emacs window and allows  you
       to  retrieve  the  entire  text  of  any  one  with  a keystroke.  See the README file for
       information on using the Emacs front-end.

       The RA is primarily designed as a proactive information provider  that  continually  gives
       you  information  that  might  be relevant to your current environment.  In this mode, ra-
       retrieve is run by a front end and its output is parsed into a more human-readable format.
       However,  Savant  can  also  be  used  as a standard text and information retrieval search
       engine.

   USAGE
       The one argument to ra-retrieve is <base-dir>, which is the directory containing the index
       files  created  by  ra-index.  This starts an interactive process that handles queries and
       returns documents that most match that query.  When running with the -v argument,  a  menu
       and  other  information  is printed.  Without the -v option it is assumed that ra-retrieve
       has been run from a front-end, and only minimal information  is  printed.   The  following
       commands are available:

       query <num-lines>
              Find  the <num-lines> most relevant documents to a query.  Default is 5.  Enter the
              text of the query, followed by a ^D (ASCII 04).  If the query matches a  predefined
              template  then  fields  are parsed and separately.  For example, in emacs mail mode
              the from, subject, date and body of the message are all individually parsed.  If no
              template matches, the query is assumed to be plain text.

              A query will output up to n summary lines followed by a period on a line by itself.
              Each summary line will contain a line number, relevance  number,  document  number,
              and  a  series  of  fields  describing  the  document.  The final field is a comma-
              separated list of words from the query that most contributed to this document being
              chosen.

       retrieve <document number>
              Retrieve and print the document with the given document number.  Document number is
              the third field outputed by the query.  The full text of the document is displayed.
              If the document is a part of a larger file, such as in an email in an archive file,
              only that one document is shown.

       loc-retrieve <document number>
              Retrieve and print the location of the document with  the  given  document  number.
              Three  values  are  displayed,  each  on their own separate line.  The first is the
              character offset to where the beginning of the document is found.   The  second  is
              the  character  offset  for  the  end of the document.  The third line contains the
              fully expanded filename for the document itself.  This is primarily  so  front-ends
              can load the document and display them with their own formatting.

       info   Display version and database info.

       quit   Quit.

       ?      Display menu.

   OPTIONS
       -v     Verbose mode.  Print a menu and other info for running without a front-end.

       -d     Debug mode.  Print not-so-useful information.

       [--docnum <docnum>]
              Print  the  contents of the specified document number and exit. This option doesn't
              use as much memory as interactive mode, and is useful for scripts  that  call  this
              program.

AUTHOR

       Bradley   Rhodes,   MIT   Media   Lab.    Please   send  comments  and  questions  to  ra-
       bugs@media.mit.edu.     New    versions    and     updates     can     be     found     at
       http://www.media.mit.edu/~rhodes/RA/

COPYRIGHT

All code included in versions up to and including 2.09:
Copyright (C) 2001 Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

All modifications subsequent to version 2.09 are copyright Bradley Rhodes or their
respective authors.

Developed by Bradley Rhodes at the Media Laboratory, MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts, with
support from British Telecom and Merrill Lynch.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of
the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. For commercial licensing
under other terms, please consult the MIT Technology Licensing Office.

This program may be subject to the following US and/or foreign patents (pending): "Method
and Apparatus for Automated, Context-Dependent Retrieval of Information," MIT Case No.
7870TS. If any of these patents are granted, royalty-free license to use this and
derivative programs under the GNU General Public License are hereby granted.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY;
without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program;
if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston,
MA 02111-1307, USA.

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