Sphinx Installation

Installing Sphinx on Linux

1. UnZip the Zip File and go to the sphinx subdirectory:

   $ tar xzvf sphinx-0.9.8.tar.gz
   $ cd sphinx
   

2. Run the configuration program:

   $ ./configure

   There's a number of options to configure. The complete listing may be obtained by using --help switch. The most important ones are:

   • --prefix, which specifies where to install Sphinx; such as --prefix=/usr/local/sphinx (all of the examples use this prefix)
   • --with-mysql, which specifies where to look for MySQL include and library files, if auto-detection fails;
   • --with-pgsql, which specifies where to look for PostgreSQL include and library files.

3. Build the binaries:

   $ make

4. Install the binaries in the directory of your choice: (defaults to /usr/local/bin/ on *nix systems, but is overridden with configure --prefix)

   $ make install

Installing Sphinx On Windows

Installing Sphinx on a Windows server is often easier than installing on a Linux environment; unless you are preparing code patches, you can use the pre-compiled binary files from the Downloads area on the website.

1. Extract .zip file you have downloaded - sphinx-0.9.8-win32.zip (or sphinx-0.9.8-win32-pgsql.zip if you need PostgresSQL support as well.)
   

   For the remainder of this guide, we will assume that the folders are unzipped into C:\Sphinx, such that searchd.exe can be found in C:\Sphinx\bin\searchd.exe. If you decide to use any different location for the folders or configuration file, please change it accordingly.

2. Install the searchd system as a Windows service:

   C:\Sphinx> C:\Sphinx\searchd --install --config C:\Sphinx\sphinx.conf --servicename SphinxSearch

3. The searchd service will now be listed in the Services panel within the Management Console, available from Administrative Tools. It will not have been started, as you will need to configure it and build your indexes with indexer before starting the service.