dan-hankins@cup.portal.com (Daniel B Hankins) (02/07/91)
I am looking for software that can do the following: * Read the contents of the files in a directory tree, and build an index sorted by word; i.e. for every word the index contains a list filenames and line numbers where that word can be found. * Use the index to find a word or set of words on one or more disks An example of this might be: 1> buildix df1: ram: The name of the disk in df1: is TextStuff, so the index builder creates an index file in ram: named TextStuff. 1> searchix TextStuff antwerp The index is used to search all files on the disk TextStuff: for the word antwerp, giving a response something like: scripts/LatheOfHeaven 127 339 5594 geography/Belgium 2507 The first item is the file, and the other items is which lines the word can be found on in that file. There already is a program that does this. It's called Lotus Magellan. Magellan builds indexes which are approximately 10% of the size of the disk being indexed. On an IBM PC/XT, Magellan can search the entire index of a 40 meg hard disk in about 4 seconds. Unfortunately, no Amiga version exists, so I'm looking for a freely redistributable alternative. If one does not exist, then I guess I'll have to write it myself. I hope I won't have to. Dan Hankins dan-hankins@cup.portal.com dan.hankins@pro-realm.cts.com Time-Life Mystery of the Unknown #547: Who invented soap-on-a-rope, and why?