Chapter 1. InfoSearch Tasks
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## Chapter 1. InfoSearch Tasks

This chapter discusses how to perform various tasks using InfoSearch. It contains the following sections:

- “Overview of InfoSearch”

- “Searching”

- “Browsing”

- “Setting up and Maintaining an InfoSearch Server”

## Overview of InfoSearch

InfoSearch provides an interface for searching, browsing, and viewing online information available on your system, a local server, or the SGI Technical Publications Library (http://techpubs.sgi.com) on the Internet. Online books, release notes, and man pages can be accessed through InfoSearch.

InfoSearch allows you to search all or some of the available online information, or browse by clicking the appropriate category.

You must have access to a web browser, such as Netscape Communicator, to use InfoSearch. InfoSearch is an extension to your web server - it is a process that is accessed through a web server to search and view the documentation described below. This content (and more) can also be obtained from the SGI Technical Publications Library found at http://techpubs.sgi.com.

InfoSearch divides the online documentation into the following categories:

- Online Books: All the online books available from the desktop

- Man Pages: All the UNIX man pages available on your system

- Release Notes: The release-specific installation notes for all your installed products or groups of products

You can find information by either “Searching” or “Browsing” through any or all of the preceding categories.

| Tip: To get help on managing your personal system, it may be easier for you to browse using the System Manager by clicking System > System Manager from the Toolchest. This contains interactive guides on many topics, such as scheduling a backup, or improving your system security.

## Searching

To begin a search, type a word in the Keyword search text field (see Figure 2-1) and click the Search button (see “Search Syntax” or “Boolean Search Syntax” for more information). The InfoSearch Search Results Page will then report the results of this search. Each search result is prepended with an identifier which indicates the type of the document that was found. See Table 1-1 for a further explanation of the document categories.

Table 1-1. InfoSearch Search Results and Document Categories

Prefix | Category | Description
--- | --- | ---
book | Online Books | An online book that gives you detailed information about your software or hardware.
man page | Man Pages | A UNIX man page that describes a shell command, a system call, or a library routine.
release note | Release Notes | Product-specific release information that supplements the standard documentation.

### Search Syntax

See Table 1-2 for InfoSearch search syntax and search results for the sample words “disk drive.” Note that InfoSearch is always case insensitive. You can also use “Boolean Search Syntax” in InfoSearch.

Table 1-2. InfoSearch Search Syntax

Syntax | Hit Results
--- | ---
`disk drive` | Higher ranking given to results containing both words; lesser ranking given to results containing one word or the other.
`“disk drive”` | Find the word disk followed immediately by the word drive.
`disk +drive` | drive MUST be contained in all results. Higher ranking given to documents that also contain the word disk.
`disk -drive` | Results must NOT contain drive. Higher ranking given to those with disk.
`disk drive*` | Wildcard used at the end of a word to find multiple characters. May not be used at the beginning or in the middle of a word. Wildcard cannot be used in conjunction with only one character (this type of search is considered to be too general).
`disk drive?` | Wildcard used at the end of a word to find one character. May not be used at the beginning or in the middle of a word.

### Boolean Search Syntax

InfoSearch also supports standard Boolean search grammar. See Table 1-3 for supported Boolean search syntax and hit results for the sample words “disk” and “drive”

Table 1-3. Boolean Search Syntax

Syntax | Hit Results
--- | ---
`disk AND drive` | Results MUST contain disk AND drive .
`disk OR drive` | Results MUST contain either disk OR drive (or both)
`disk NOT drive` | Results MUST contain disk but NOT drive.

## Browsing

You can use InfoSearch to browse if you are unsure about what you are looking for or just want to see what is available on a particular topic. To begin browsing from the InfoSearch Home Page, click one of the document categories (see Table 1-1). Continue clicking from the various headings and you will eventually invoke the InfoSearch Document Page.

## Setting up and Maintaining an InfoSearch Server

You must install all the content that you want to access through InfoSearch on the system that is your InfoSearch server. You can do this typically either from an installation CD-ROM or from the installation images on your local network.

You should keep your content updated so that your database matches what is available on your local network and InfoSearch can access that information.

To install or update the content you must perform these steps.

1. Enter `su` (super-user) to obtain root access to your system.

2. Enter `setenv MANPATH` or `setenv RELNOTESPATH` to set the `MANPATH` and `RELNOTESPATH` environment variables to the location where your man pages and release notes reside. This step is only required if the files are outside of the standard areas (`/usr/share/catman` and `/usr/relnotes`).

3. Enter `/usr/lib/infosearch/bin/sgindexAdmin -update` to update the InfoSearch database with the latest information.

This causes the full-text index and ancillary InfoSearch data files to be updated. Depending upon the extent of the differences between what is found in your existing database and the actual content on your system, this step can take a while. As an example, an 85-book online library might take approximately 5 minutes.

Optionally, you can use the `-force` option to remove your existing database and create a new set of InfoSearch database files. To do this, use the following command: `/usr/lib/infosearch/bin/sgindexAdmin -force -update`.

To function properly, the InfoSearch server requires that a web server such as Apache or Netscape Fasttrack (with the server `DOCROOT` set to `/var/www/htdocs`) be installed and running on the target server system.

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About This Guide |  | Chapter 2. InfoSearch Reference