Re: [htdig] Searching Directories outside WebRoot with htdig?

[Gilles D. <gr...@sc...>]

According to Hinrich Specht:
> I=B4m looking for a search engine to be used in an intranet solution. T=
here
> are pdf-files placed in a directory that is not part of the webroot (an=
d for
> some security reasons it must not be part of it). The pdf-files in this
> directory should be indexed by the search engine...

Well, if security is a concern, wouldn't it defeat that security to put
a searchable index of these documents up on your web site?  (See
http://www.htdig.org/FAQ.html#q4.20)  Or are you looking for a non-web
based search interface?  The htsearch program can be configured to run
from a shell script and give plain text results.

> now my question: Is htdig able to
> search in the local filesystem (outside webroot) - or, if not: Can anyo=
ne
> suggest a way to solve the problem? One idea might be to have a dedicat=
ed
> webserver installed and to make the pdf-directories the webroot of this=
 webserver,
> then only let the searchengine have access to it ?!?!?

Well, a dedicated, secure and password-contolled web server might be a
solution to the problem, but there are other ways.  With the local_urls
attribute, you can convince or trick htdig to look elsewhere for files
(even outside of the DocumentRoot), by mapping http:// URLs to specific
local directories.  Also, with the recent 3.2.0b4 snapshots, you can
get htdig to index file:/ URLs too.

--=20
Gilles R. Detillieux              E-mail: <gr...@sc...>
Spinal Cord Research Centre       WWW:    http://www.scrc.umanitoba.ca/
Dept. Physiology, U. of Manitoba  Winnipeg, MB  R3E 3J7  (Canada)