Installation

search ships as a single binary, sx, and as a Go library, github.com/tamnd/search. Pick whichever channel suits you. If you only want to use the engine from Go code, skip to as a Go library.

Go

go install github.com/tamnd/search/cmd/sx@latest

This puts sx in $(go env GOPATH)/bin. The core is pure Go, so a CGO_ENABLED=0 install works and cross-compiles like any other Go binary.

Homebrew (macOS and Linux)

brew install tamnd/tap/search

The formula installs the prebuilt sx binary.

Scoop (Windows)

scoop bucket add tamnd https://github.com/tamnd/scoop-bucket
scoop install search

Linux (apt and dnf)

A signed apt and dnf repository tracks every release, so apt upgrade and dnf upgrade keep sx current.

# Debian, Ubuntu
curl -fsSL https://tamnd.github.io/linux-repo/gpg.key \
  | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/tamnd.gpg
echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/tamnd.gpg] https://tamnd.github.io/linux-repo/apt stable main" \
  | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/tamnd.list
sudo apt update && sudo apt install search

# Fedora, RHEL
sudo dnf config-manager --add-repo https://tamnd.github.io/linux-repo/dnf/tamnd.repo
sudo dnf install search

Release archives and Linux packages

Every release attaches tar.gz archives (and a .zip for Windows) for Linux, macOS, Windows, and FreeBSD, plus .deb, .rpm, and .apk packages and a checksums.txt. Download the one for your platform, extract sx, and put it on your PATH. To install a package directly without the repo above:

# Debian, Ubuntu
sudo dpkg -i search_*_amd64.deb

# Fedora, RHEL
sudo rpm -i search-*.x86_64.rpm

Container

docker run -v "$PWD:/data" ghcr.io/tamnd/search query /data/books.sx --field title go

The image is the bare sx binary, so mount the directory holding your .sx file and pass paths inside the container.

Build from source

Clone the repository and build with the Makefile:

git clone https://github.com/tamnd/search
cd search
make build

make build produces the sx binary in the working tree. To run the full test suite first:

go test ./...

As a Go library

To use the engine from Go code, add the module to your project:

go get github.com/tamnd/search

The packages you will reach for most are the root search (the DB lifecycle, indexing, and search), schema (field mappings and types), and query (the query tree). The quick start uses all three.

When you need the engine from another language, build the C shared library and its header:

go build -buildmode=c-shared -o libsearch.so ./cabi

Next: the quick start.