Time for action - installation on Windows

1. 1. Download the Win32 binaries of Sphinx from http://www.sphinxsearch.com/downloads.html. Choose the binary depending on whether you want MySQL support, or PostgreSQL support, or both.

2. 2. Extract the downloaded ZIP to any suitable location. Let's assume it is extracted to C:\>sphinx.

3. 3. Install the searched system as a Windows service by issuing the following command in the Command Prompt:

   C:\sphinx\bin\searchd -install -config C:\sphinx\sphinx.conf -servicename SphinxSearch
   

   This will install searchd as a service but it won't be started yet. Before starting the Sphinx service we need to create the sphinx.conf file and create indexes. This will be done in the next few chapters.

What just happened?

Installing Sphinx on windows is a straight-forward task. We have pre-compiled binaries for the windows platform, which can be used directly.

After extracting the ZIP, we installed the Sphinx service. We need not install anything else since binaries for indexer and search are readily available in the C:\sphinx\bin directory.

The use of binaries to create indexes and the use of the searchd service to search will be covered in the next few chapters.

Note

At the time of writing this book, the Windows version of Sphinx is not meant to be used in production environment. It is highly recommended to use the Linux version of Sphinx in your production environment.

Sphinx on Mac OS X

Installation on a Mac is very similar to how it is done on Linux systems. You need to build it from source and then install the generated binaries.