Minimal Sphinx configuration to play with Sphinx

If you want to start learning Sphinx or see how some its feature works the following simplest Sphinx configuration might be useful:

source min
{
    type = mysql
    sql_host = localhost
    sql_user = root
    sql_pass =
    sql_db = test
    sql_query = select 1, 'cat' union select 2, 'dog'
}

index idx_min
{
    path = idx
    source = min
}

searchd
{
    listen = 9306:mysql41
    log = sphinx.log
    pid_file = sphinx.pid
}

It contains almost nothing, but only those things Sphinx cannot work without. Those are:

• Section “source” to fetch data from mysql. In this case we don’t even fetch real data from mysql, but just use mysql interface having the data defined right in the config (“select 1, ‘cat’ union select 2, ‘dog’”). It will create 2 documents in Sphinx: one containing word “cat”, another one with word “dog”, the ids are 1 and 2 respectively.
• Section “index” to create index based on the above source, it contains only reference to the source (“source = min”) and path to the index (“path = idx”). Once you build this index files idx.* will be created in the dir you start ‘indexer’ from.
• Section “searchd” to tell Sphinx what ports it should be listening (“listen = 9307:mysql41″ which means that SphinxQL should be used to talk to Sphinx on this port), what log it should use (“log = sphinx.log”) and where it should save its process id (“pid_file = sphinx.pid”)

Here’s an example of using this config:

• Indexing:

  [snikolaev@srv ~]$ indexer -c sphinx_min.conf --all
  Sphinx 0.9.10-dev (r1996)
  Copyright (c) 2001-2009, Andrew Aksyonoff
  
  using config file 'sphinx_min.conf'...
  indexing index 'idx_min'...
  collected 2 docs, 0.0 MB
  sorted 0.0 Mhits, 100.0% done
  total 2 docs, 6 bytes
  total 0.097 sec, 61 bytes/sec, 20.51 docs/sec
  total 2 reads, 0.000 sec, 16.0 kb/call avg, 0.0 msec/call avg
  total 6 writes, 0.000 sec, 0.0 kb/call avg, 0.0 msec/call avg
  

• Using ‘search’ tool to find some results:

  
  [snikolaev@srv ~]$ search -c sphinx_min.conf dog
  Sphinx 0.9.10-dev (r1996)
  Copyright (c) 2001-2009, Andrew Aksyonoff
  
  using config file 'sphinx_min.conf'...
  index 'idx_min': query 'dog ': returned 1 matches of 1 total in 0.097 sec
  
  displaying matches:
  1. document=2, weight=1643
  
  words:
  1. 'dog': 1 documents, 1 hits
  
  [snikolaev@srv ~]$ search -c sphinx_min.conf "dog|cat"
  Sphinx 0.9.10-dev (r1996)
  Copyright (c) 2001-2009, Andrew Aksyonoff
  
  using config file 'sphinx_min.conf'...
  index 'idx_min': query 'dog|cat ': returned 2 matches of 2 total in 0.000 sec
  
  displaying matches:
  1. document=1, weight=1571
  2. document=2, weight=1571
  
  words:
  1. 'dog': 1 documents, 1 hits
  2. 'cat': 1 documents, 1 hits
  

• Starting ‘searchd’ and fetching results using mysql client:

  [snikolaev@srv ~]$ searchd -c sphinx_min.conf
  Sphinx 0.9.10-dev (r1996)
  Copyright (c) 2001-2009, Andrew Aksyonoff
  
  using config file 'sphinx_min.conf'...
  listening on all interfaces, port=9306
  precaching index 'idx_min'
  precached 1 indexes in 0.352 sec                            
  
  [snikolaev@srv ~]$ mysql -hlocalhost -P9306 --protocol=tcp
  Welcome to the MySQL monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
  Your MySQL connection id is 1
  Server version: 0.9.10-dev (r1996)
  
  Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.
  
  mysql> select * from idx_min where match('cat');
  +------+--------+
  | id   | weight |
  +------+--------+
  |    1 |   1643 |
  +------+--------+
  1 row in set (0.23 sec)
  
  mysql> select * from idx_min where match('dog');
  +------+--------+
  | id   | weight |
  +------+--------+
  |    2 |   1643 |
  +------+--------+
  1 row in set (0.00 sec)
  

Enjoy playing with Sphinx!