RECOLL(1)

💖 RECOLL(1) — the user interface for the Recoll full text search system 💖

okay bestie, so recoll is your user interface for the Recoll full text search system, and it's literally the main character of this whole manpage. it wears three different outfits depending on how you call it, and we're gonna walk through every single one of them. no cap. 🦋

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

the three fits, in order, verbatim, don't @ me:

recoll [ -h ] [ -c <configdir> ] [ -L <lang> ] [ -w ] [ -W ] [ -o | -l |
-f | -a ] [ -q <query> ]

recoll -t [ -h ] [ -c <configdir> ] [ -o | -l | -f | -a ] [ -q <query> ]

recoll [ -c <configdir> ] <url>

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

💅 Form one: the GUI era

In the first form, the recoll command will start the index query graphical user interface. and on the first run, this will create the user configuration — which you can customize before starting the index creation. so yeah, it sets up your lil home base and then hands you the keys. 🎀

💀 Form two: terminal gremlin mode (-t)

In the second form (the one with the -t option), recoll will behave like the recollq command. it will not start a GUI — instead it will run the query and output the results to the terminal (standard output). slay.

this will also be the case if recoll is called as recollq through a link. and in that case, additional options understood by the recollq command may be specified. those ones can control the output format and the maximum number of results to be printed. for the full tea, please refer to the command help obtained through the -t -h options, or to the recollq manual page. 📖

⚠️ important, bestie: -t must be set separately, it can't be concatenated with other single-letter options. periodt.

🫶 -c — where your config lives

The -c option specifies the configuration directory name, overriding the default or $RECOLL_CONFDIR. 💖

🙈 -w and -W — for the lowkey girlies

With the -w option, the GUI starts minimized, which can be useful for starting it automatically with the desktop. -W is similar, but will only show a system tray icon. it can only be used if the system tray option is set in the preferences. (yes, only. check your prefs first, don't come crying to me 😭)

🔥 -q — start with a query already loaded

The -q option can be used to specify an initial query on the command line. this query will be interpreted by default as a query language string. but here's the vibe check on how each flag changes that interpretation:

• -a — the query string will be interpreted as an all words simple search query.
• -o — the query string will be interpreted as an any word simple search query.
• -f — the query string will be interpreted as a file name simple search query.
• -l — the query string will be interpreted as a query language simple search query. and this is also what happens by default, without any option.

🌈 Form three: the native viewer glow-up

In the third form, the recoll command can be used to start a native viewer for a document indexed by Recoll. it will understand a final URL fragment (separated by a '#' character) to indicate an ipath — the specifier for the part of the Recoll document access path which is internal to a container such as a mbox folder or a zip archive. and it will, if needed, create a temporary file to let a normal system utility display the document. this form is mostly used for opening embedded documents from an external desktop search interface. 🧚

🌟 psst — the synopsis up top also shows -h and -L <lang> in the first and second forms, so go look at them there. i'm just telling you what's on the page, i'm not out here inventing lore.

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👑 SEE ALSO 👑

• recollindex(1)
• recollq(1)
• recoll.conf(5)

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and that's the whole page, bestie!! 🍓

this iconic little doc comes from the General Commands Manual, it's dated 8 January 2006, and its source/version tag is RECOLL(1) — matching the RECOLL(1) at the top, because symmetry is also main character energy. 💜

go search something. you got this. 💅✨