Full-text Search¶
Full-text search
RhodeCode provides a full text search capabilities to search inside file content, commit message, and file paths. Indexing is not enabled by default and to use full text search building an index is a pre-requisite.
RhodeCode Enterprise provides support for ElasticSearch 8 as a backend for advanced and scalable search.
Previously RhodeCode was also supporting alternative Whoosh backend to index repositories and provide full-text search, but as of version 5.6.0 Whoosh is deprecated. ElasticSearch 8 is only available for EE users.
Auth Token generation¶
RhodeCode indexer runs on top of RhodeCode Enterprise API and requires an Authentication Token before continuing. To run the indexer you need to have an Authentication Token with admin rights to all of repositories that indexer should process.
To get your API Token, on the RhodeCode Enterprise interface go to Click on the icon with your user in top right corner
Put a description for the Authentication Token
Select expiration date if desired
Select api calls role for the token
Click Add
Click on the obfuscated generated token, and copy it.
Indexing¶
To index repositories stored in RhodeCode, you have the option to set the indexer up in a number of ways, for example:
Call the indexer via a cron job. We recommend running this once at night. In case you need everything indexed immediately it’s possible to index few times during the day. Indexer has a special locking mechanism that won’t allow two instances of indexer running at once. It’s safe to run it even every 1hr.
Hook the indexer up with your CI server to reindex after each push.
Set the indexer to infinitely loop and reindex as soon as it has run its previous cycle. This allows to get an instance indexing of content that would be available seconds after changes happen.
The indexer works by indexing new commits added since the last run, and comparing file changes to index only new or modified files across each invocation.
Note
If you wish to build a brand new index from scratch each time, use the force
option in the configuration file, or run it with –force flag.
To set up indexing, use the following steps:
Configure the .rhoderc File¶
Note
Optionally it’s possible to use indexer without the .rhoderc. Simply instead of
executing with –instance-name=rc-idx execute providing the host and token
directly: –api-host=https://your-host.example.com –api-key=<auth-token-goes-here>
Note
In some cases the domain could be only available via the custom DNS, you can always refer the instance by it’s docker name and port (http://rhodecode:10020) instead of hostname, for example:
./rcstack cli cmd rhodecode-index --api-host=http://rhodecode:10020 --api-key=xxx
Indexer uses the /home/user/.rhoderc file for connection details
to RhodeCode Enterprise instances. You need to configure the details for each instance you want to index.
./rcstack cli cmd rhodecode-setup-config \
--filename=/etc/rhodecode/conf/.rhoderc \
--instance-name=rc-idx api_host=https://your-host.example.com,api_key=<auth-token-goes-here>
Here’s an example generated config you might also mount as a file to the docker image.
# Configure .rhoderc with matching details
# This allows the indexer to connect to the instance
[instance:rc-idx]
api_host = https://your-host.example.com
api_key = <auth token goes here>
Run the Indexer¶
Run the indexer using the following command, and specify the instance you want to index:
# Using default simples indexing of all repositories
$ ./rcstack cli cmd rhodecode-index \
--no-tty --config=/etc/rhodecode/conf/.rhoderc \
--instance-name=rc-idx
# Using a custom mapping file and invocation without ``.rhoderc``
$ ./rcstack cli cmd rhodecode-index \
--no-tty \
--api-host=https://your-host.example.com --api-key=xxxxx \
--mapping=/etc/rhodecode/conf/search_mapping.ini
# Using a custom mapping file with indexing rules, and using elasticsearch 6 backend
$ ./rcstack cli cmd rhodecode-index \
--no-tty --config=/etc/rhodecode/conf/.rhoderc \
--instance-name=rc-idx \
--mapping=/etc/rhodecode/conf/search_mapping.ini \
--es-version=6 --engine-location=http://elasticsearch:9200
# For some advanced usage, please check --help flag to see what other CLI options are available
``$ ./rcstack cli cmd rhodecode-index --help``
Note
In case of often indexing using Whoosh backend the index may become fragmented. Most often a result of that is error about too many open files. To fix this indexer needs to be executed with –optimize flag. E.g
$ ./rcstack cli cmd rhodecode-index --instance-name=rc-idx --optimizeThis should be executed regularly, once a week is recommended. When using ElasticSearch this step can be skipped.
Schedule the Indexer¶
To schedule the indexer, configure the crontab file to run the indexer inside your RhodeCode Tools virtualenv using the following steps.
Open the crontab file, using
crontab -e.Add the indexer to the crontab, and schedule it to run as regularly as you wish.
Save the file.
$ crontab -e
# The virtualenv can be called using its full path, so for example you can
# put this example into the crontab
# Run the indexer daily at 4am using the default mapping settings, --no-tty is required for non interactive calls
* 4 * * * ./rcstack cli cmd rhodecode-index --no-tty --config=/etc/rhodecode/conf/.rhoderc --instance-name=rc-idx
# Run the indexer every Sunday at 3am using default mapping
* 3 * * 0 ./rcstack cli cmd rhodecode-index --no-tty --config=/etc/rhodecode/conf/.rhoderc --instance-name=rc-idx
# Run the indexer every 15 minutes
# using a specially configured mapping file
*/15 * * * * ./rcstack cli cmd rhodecode-index --no-tty --config=/etc/rhodecode/conf/.rhoderc --instance-name=rc-idx --mapping=/etc/rhodecode/conf/search_mapping.ini
Advanced Indexing¶
Force Re-Indexing single repository¶
Often it’s required to re-index whole repository because of some repository changes, or to remove some indexed secrets, or files. There’s a special –repo-name= flag for the indexer that limits execution to a single repository. For example to force-reindex single repository such call can be made
./rcstack cli cmd rhodecode-index --no-tty --config=/etc/rhodecode/conf/.rhoderc --instance-name=rc-idx --force --repo-name=rhodecode-vcsserver
Limiting indexing to small number of repos¶
Often to preserve memory usage and system load we might limit the number of repositories processed on each call. There’s a special –repo-limit= flag for the indexer that limits execution to a N repositories.
./rcstack cli cmd rhodecode-index --no-tty --config=/etc/rhodecode/conf/.rhoderc --instance-name=rc-idx --repo-limit=10
Removing repositories from index¶
The indexer automatically removes renamed repositories and builds index for new names. In the same way if a listed repository in mapping.ini is not reported existing by the server it’s removed from the index. In case that you wish to remove indexed repository manually such call would allow that
./rcstack cli cmd rhodecode-index --no-tty --config=/etc/rhodecode/conf/.rhoderc --instance-name=rc-idx --remove-only --repo-name=rhodecode-vcsserver
Using search_mapping.ini file for advanced index rules¶
By default rhodecode-index runs for all repositories, all files with parsing limits defined by the CLI default arguments. You can change those limits by calling with different flags such as –max-filesize=2048kb or –repo-limit=10
For more advanced execution logic it’s possible to use a configuration file that would define detailed rules which repositories and how should be indexed.
To create the search_mapping.ini file manually, use the below command
./rcstack cli cmd rhodecode-index --config=/etc/rhodecode/conf/.rhoderc --instance-name=rc-idx \
--create-mapping=/etc/rhodecode/conf/search_mapping.ini
Now the indexer can be executed with –mapping flag
Here’s a detailed example of using search_mapping.ini file.
[__DEFAULT__]
; Create index on commits data, and files data in this order. Available options
; are `commits`, `files`
index_types = commits,files
; Commit fetch limit. In what amount of chunks commits should be fetched
; via api and parsed. This allows server to transfer smaller chunks and be less loaded
commit_fetch_limit = 1000
; Commit process limit. Limit the number of commits indexer should fetch, and
; store inside the full text search index. eg. if repo has 2000 commits, and
; limit is 1000, on the first run it will process commits 0-1000 and on the
; second 1000-2000 commits. Help reduce memory usage, default is 50000
; (set -1 for unlimited)
commit_process_limit = 20000
; Limit of how many repositories each run can process, default is -1 (unlimited)
; in case of 1000s of repositories it's better to execute in chunks to not overload
; the server.
repo_limit = -1
; Default patterns for indexing files and content of files. Binary files
; are skipped by default.
; Add to index those comma separated files; globs syntax
; e.g index_files = *.py, *.c, *.h, *.js
index_files = *,
; Do not add to index those comma separated files, this excludes
; both search by name and content; globs syntax
; e.g index_files = *.key, *.sql, *.xml, *.pem, *.crt
skip_files = ,
; Add to index content of those comma separated files; globs syntax
; e.g index_files = *.h, *.obj
index_files_content = *,
; Do not add to index content of those comma separated files; globs syntax
; Binary files are not indexed by default.
; e.g index_files = *.min.js, *.xml, *.dump, *.log, *.dump
skip_files_content = ,
; Force rebuilding an index from scratch. Each repository will be rebuild from
; scratch with a global flag. Use --repo-name=NAME --force to rebuild single repo
force = false
; maximum file size that indexer will use, files above that limit are not going
; to have they content indexed.
; Possible options are KB (kilobytes), MB (megabytes), eg 1MB or 1024KB
max_filesize = 10MB
[__INDEX_RULES__]
; Ordered match rules for repositories. A list of all repositories will be fetched
; using API and this list will be filtered using those rules.
; Syntax for entry: `glob_pattern_OR_full_repo_name = 0 OR 1` where 0=exclude, 1=include
; When this ordered list is traversed first match will return the include/exclude marker
; For example:
; upstream/binary_repo = 0
; upstream/subrepo/xml_files = 0
; upstream/* = 1
; special-repo = 1
; * = 0
; This will index all repositories under upstream/*, but skip upstream/binary_repo
; and upstream/sub_repo/xml_files, last * = 0 means skip all other matches
; == EXPLICIT REPOSITORY INDEXING ==
; If defined this will skip using __INDEX_RULES__, and will not use API to fetch
; list of repositories, it will explicitly take names defined with [NAME] format and
; try to build the index, to build index just for repo_name_1 and special-repo use:
; [repo_name_1]
; [special-repo]
; == PER REPOSITORY CONFIGURATION ==
; This allows overriding the global configuration per repository.
; example to set specific file limit, and skip certain files for repository special-repo
; the CLI flags doesn't override the conf settings.
; [conf:special-repo]
; max_filesize = 5mb
; skip_files = *.xml, *.sql
In case of 1000s of repositories it can be tricky to write the include/exclude rules at first. There’s a special flag to test the mapping file rules and list repositories that would be indexed. Run the indexer with –show-matched-repos to list only the match repositories defined in .ini file rules
./rcstack cli cmd rhodecode-index --no-tty --config=/etc/rhodecode/conf/.rhoderc --instance-name=rc-idx --show-matched-repos --mapping=/etc/rhodecode/conf/search_mapping.ini
Enabling ElasticSearch¶
ElasticSearch is available in EE edition only. It provides scalable and advanced search capabilities and advanced query language. It allows advanced filtering by file paths, extensions, use OR statements, ranges etc. Please check query language examples in the search field for some advanced query language usage.
Open the
rhodecode.inifile for the instance you wish to edit. The default location isconfig/_shared/rhodecode.iniFind the search configuration section:
###################################
## SEARCH INDEXING CONFIGURATION ##
###################################
search.module = rhodecode.lib.index.whoosh
search.location = %(here)s/data/index
and change it to:
search.module = rc_elasticsearch
search.location = http://elasticsearch:9200
## specify Elastic Search version, 8 for latest
search.es_version = 8
where search.location points to the ElasticSearch server
by default running on port 9200.
Index invocation also needs change. Please provide –es-version= and –engine-location= parameters to define ElasticSearch server location and it’s version. For example:
rhodecode-index --instance-name=enterprise-1 --es-version=8 --engine-location=http://elasticsearch:9200