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authorCorentin Noël <corentin@elementary.io>2019-03-26 22:12:30 +0000
committerSam Thursfield <sam@afuera.me.uk>2019-03-26 22:12:30 +0000
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+# Tracker
+
+Tracker is a search engine and that allows the user to find their
+data as fast as possible. Users can search for their files and
+search for content in their files too.
+
+Tracker is a semantic data storage for desktop and mobile devices.
+Tracker uses W3C standards for RDF ontologies using Nepomuk with
+SPARQL to query and update the data.
+
+Tracker is a central repository of user information, that provides
+two big benefits for the desktop; shared data between applications
+and information which is relational to other information (for
+example: mixing contacts with files, locations, activities and
+etc.).
+
+This central repository works with a well defined data model that
+applications can rely on to store and recover their information.
+That data model is defined using a semantic web artifact called
+ontology. An ontology defines the relationships between the
+information stored in the repository.
+
+An EU-funded project called Nepomuk was started to define some of
+the core ontologies to be modeled on the Desktop. Tracker uses this
+to define the data's relationships in a database.
+
+All discussion related to tracker happens on the Tracker
+mailing list
+
+ https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/tracker-list
+
+IRC channel #tracker on:
+
+ irc.gimp.net
+
+Bugs and feature requests should be filed at:
+
+ https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/tracker/issues
+
+More infomation on Tracker can be found at:
+
+ https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/Tracker
+
+Repository can be found at:
+
+ https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/tracker
+
+The official RoadMap (aka TODO) can be found at:
+
+ https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/Tracker/Roadmap
+
+
+## Use Cases
+
+Tracker is the most powerful open source metadata database and
+indexer framework currently available and because it is built
+around a combination indexer and SQL database and not a
+dedicated indexer, it has much more powerful use cases:
+
+ * Provide search and indexing facilities similar to those on
+ other systems (Windows Vista and Mac OS X).
+
+ * Common database storage for all first class objects (e.g. a
+ common music/photo/contacts/email/bookmarks/history database)
+ complete with additional metadata and tags/keywords.
+
+ * Comprehensive one stop solution for all applications needing
+ an object database, powerful search (via RDF Query), first class
+ methods, related metadata and user-definable metadata/tags.
+
+ * Can provide a full semantic desktop with metadata everywhere.
+
+ * Can provide powerful criteria-based searching suitable for
+ creating smart file dialogs and vfolder systems.
+
+ * Can provide a more intelligent desktop using statistical
+ metadata.
+
+## Features
+
+ * Desktop-neutral design (it's a freedesktop product built
+ around other freedesktop technologies like D-Bus and XDGMime
+ but contains no GNOME-specific dependencies besides GLib).
+
+ * Very memory efficient. Unlike some other indexers, Tracker is
+ designed and built to run well on mobile and desktop systems with
+ lower memory (256MB or less).
+
+ * Non-bloated and written in C for maximum efficiency.
+
+ * Small size and minimal dependencies makes it easy to bundle
+ into various distros, including live CDs.
+
+ * Provides option to disable indexing when running on battery.
+
+ * Provides option to index removable devices.
+
+ * Implements the freedesktop specification for metadata
+ (https://freedesktop.org/wiki/Standards/shared-filemetadata-spec/).
+
+ * Extracts embedded File, Image, Document and Audio type
+ metadata from files.
+
+ * Supports the WC3's RDF Query syntax for querying metadata.
+
+ * Provides support for both free text search (like Beagle/Google)
+ as well as structured searches using RDF Query.
+
+ * Responds in real time to file system changes to keep its
+ metadata database up to date and in sync.
+
+ * Fully extensible with custom metadata - you can store,
+ retrieve, register and search via RDF Query all your own custom
+ metadata.
+
+ * Can extract a file's contents as plain text and index them.
+
+ * Can provide thumbnailing on the fly.
+
+ * It auto-pauses indexing when running low on diskspace.
+
+## Compilation
+
+To setup the project for compilation after checking it out from
+the git repository, use:
+
+ meson build --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc
+
+To start compiling the project use:
+
+ ninja -C build
+ ninja install
+
+If you install using any other prefix, you might have problems
+with files not being installed correctly. (You may need to copy
+and amend the dbus service file to the correct directory and/or
+might need to update ld_conf if you install into non-standard
+directories.)
+
+## Running Tracker
+
+### Usage
+
+Tracker normally starts itself when users log in. You can indexing by running:
+
+ $prefix/libexec/tracker-miner-fs
+
+You can configure how this works using:
+
+ $prefix/bin/tracker-preferences
+
+You can monitor data miners using:
+
+ $prefix/bin/tracker-status-icon
+
+You can do simple searching using an applet:
+
+ $prefix/libexec/tracker-search-bar
+
+You can do more extensive searching using:
+
+ $prefix/bin/tracker-search-tool
+
+### Setting Inotify Watch Limit
+
+When watching large numbers of folders, its possible to exceed
+the default number of inotify watches. In order to get real time
+updates when this value is exceeded it is necessary to increase
+the number of allowed watches. This can be done as follows:
+
+ 1. Add this line to /etc/sysctl.conf:
+ "fs.inotify.max_user_watches = (number of folders to be
+ watched; default used to be 8192 and now is 524288)"
+
+ 2. Reboot the system OR (on a Debian-like system) run
+ "sudo /etc/init.d/procps restart"
+
+## Further Help
+
+### Man pages
+
+Every config file and every binary has a man page. If you start with
+tracker-store, you should be able to find out about most other
+commands on the SEE ALSO section.
+
+### Utilities
+
+There are a range of tracker utilities that help you query for data.
+