Strigidaemon

[Sebastian Trüg]

Here is another idea:

During initial indexing (this is the heavy cpu-loading one) show a progress 
dialog with a short explanation of what is happening (in the upper left or 
whatever). Let it have a "details" button which provides detailed information 
and direct access to basic configuration. This should include "cancel and do 
not start again" and "select the folders to index".

Once the initial indexing is done, only moved and newly created files should 
be indexed. That should be fairly little work for the cpu. An exception are 
files that are changed or added while strigi was not running. But that is 
another problem which IMHO should be addressed in a smarter way than just 
re-indexing everything. A possibility would be to save the last time strigi 
ran and only check files that have a later modification date. Then at least 
we would neither have to check the index nor the file contents for each file 
again.

Anyway, what do you think of the progress info for the initial run?

Cheers,
Sebastian

On Tuesday 01 April 2008 23:25:53 Robert Knight wrote:
> Hi,
>
> > Can't "we" make a popup that is relatively self-explanatory
> > and "gentle"?
>
> I think that suggestion is a band-aid to patch over technical problems
> with Strigi.
>
> As a general purpose search tool it has a number of problems.  I think
> distributions would be hard push to ship it out of the box until they
> are fixed.
> These are based on the last time I looked at the code a few months ago
> so please, correct me if I am wrong on any of these points.
>
> - It is designed for fast indexing over low system impact.
> - Designed for manual configuration (instead of Spotlight, Vista's
> indexer, Beagle, Tracker etc. which are all configurable to some extent
> but are designed to work well with no/minimal setup)
> - 3rd party plugins are implemented in native code and correct me if I
> am wrong but they run in the strigidaemon process so the daemon cannot
> easily control them if they run amok.  Some examples are KOffice Strigi
> plugins which tried to parse all XML files they encountered into
> QDomDocuments (using vast amounts of memory in the process) and the diff
> analyser which is not very efficient.
> - Strigi doesn't log its activities so it cannot remember to ignore
> files which cause problems or disable plugins which aren't working well.
> - The kernel's inotify doesn't really meet the needs of system-wide
> indexers.  I know that Apple had to make kernel-level changes to support
> Spotlight and I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft did as well.
>
> If you see Strigi not as a general purpose search tool but a replacement
> for lucene/updatedb then some of these points don't apply.  The last
> point is outside of Strigi as a project but the first few items are very
> much in its remit.
>
> Regards,
> Robert.
>
> On Tue, 2008-04-01 at 10:58 -0400, Randy Kramer wrote:
> > On Tuesday 01 April 2008 03:48 am, Louai Al-Khanji wrote:
> > > Having dialogs pop up at unsuspecting users is not very nice. :)  I
> > > think
> >
> > most
> >
> > > users will not know what they are configuring, and especially not _why_
> > > they are configuring it. IMHO it would be better to have a default
> > > configuration that suits most people, and provide a (convenient) way to
> > > tailor strigi settings for power users.
> >
> > IMHO, having some program start running, using lots of my cpu and memory
> > (I'm thinking back to kat, but is any indexing program much better?), is
> > worse than a one-time (unless you request to be reminded) popup that
> > tells me there is an application named strigi whicht will be started by
> > default (at each boot?)  and will index such and such directories by
> > default unless I change the configuration now (or later, by asking to be
> > reminded).
> >
> > Aside: Have the usability people weighed in on this?  (Or been asked?)
> >
> > This popup occurs either during installation or the first time a user
> > logs in (or something along those lines), not every time the user logs
> > in.
> >
> > Can't "we" make a popup that is relatively self-explanatory and "gentle"?
> >
> > Trying a first draft (for the first time it pops up).
> >
> > '
> > Hi!
> >
> > This popup explains something you might want to know about how search can
> > be speeded up on this machine.  If you don't have the time or interest
> > for this, click "Continue" or "Let's discuss this later" (maybe giving
> > the user choices of:
> >    * next time I boot up
> >    * when I get ready for shut down
> >    * an hour (or x hours, allowing reasonable fractions, like 1/4, 1/2,
> > 3/4) from now
> > )
> >
> > This installation of KDE includes a program named Strigi(daemon) which
> > will index selected directories on your computer so that searches can be
> > much faster.  ("can be" trying to imply (assuming that it is true) that
> > ordinary greps and finds are not speeded up by the Strigi indexes--maybe
> > we [can | have to] say "searches using the Strigi search tool are much
> > faster"?)
> >
> > If you click on "Continue" (best word?--Hmm, maybe "Enable Strigi" is
> > better, and can be "highlighted" as the default), Strigi will index your
> > home directory immediately and each time you log in (if this is true, or
> > each night, or whatever is true), but (if this is true) with a lowered
> > priority (using the Linux "nice" system) to minimize the impact to your
> > system.
> >
> > Note that any indexing program does use system resources and can slow
> > down your machine at times--we've designed Strigi to be as unobtrusive as
> > possible (if true, or some other line that is true).
> >
> > If you want to review (and possibly change) the options available for
> > Strigi, click on "Configure".
> >
> > If you don't want Strigi to run on this computer, click on "Disable
> > Strigi" (with an option to "Remind me Later", and again with the options
> > for in one hour (or x hours), at shutdown, at next boot).
> >
> > If you want Strigi to run in its default configuration, click "Continue"
> > (or "Enable Strigi") (again, maybe giving an option to "Remind me (or
> > "Let's discuss this) Later", and again with the options for in one hour
> > (or x hours?), at shutdown, at next boot).
> > '
> > Randy Kramer