Raw capture — raw/recoll.md

url: https://www.recoll.org/ title: Recoll author: Jean-Francois Dockes date_fetched: 2026-07-11 date_published: unknown (active since at least 2013, latest release 2026-06-30)

Recoll: Full-Text Desktop Search Engine

Recoll is a full-text search tool for desktop environments that finds documents based on their contents as well as file names. It's built on the Xapian search engine library.

Key Features

Deep indexing: Recoll can index "an MS-Word document stored as an attachment to an e-mail message inside a Thunderbird folder archived in a Zip file"
Broad format support: Handles most document formats, potentially requiring external tools for text extraction
Universal storage access: Reaches "any storage place: files, archive members, email attachments, transparently handling decompression"
One-click opening: Opens documents in their native editor or provides a text preview
Web front-end: A WEB UI with preview/download features "can replace or supplement the GUI for remote use"
Powerful GUI: "A complete, yet easy to use, Qt graphical interface"
Text preview: Displays quicker text previews without opening full documents
PDF page-level linking: Can "open a copy of a PDF at the right page with two clicks"

Supported Platforms

Linux (primary platform)
MS Windows (via a dedicated port)
macOS (install method updated 2021)
Android (via an F-Droid app and companion server, added November 2024)
Flatpak (contributed by a third party, available on Flathub)
AppImage (built on Debian Buster, works with most Linux distros from ~2019 onward)

Architecture & How It Works

Backend: Xapian search engine library handles the indexing and retrieval engine
Text extraction layer: Recoll provides a powerful layer above Xapian for extracting text from diverse formats
Indexing modes: Supports a newer method "using multiple temporary indexes" (not default)
Configuration files: GUI preferences stored at ~/.config/Recoll.org/recoll.ini; indexing config at ~/.recoll/recoll.conf
Language processing: Correctly processes Tibetan using n-grams (v1.41+); improved Korean indexing; allows configuring non-alphanumeric characters as separate words (v1.39+)
OCR support: "Vastly improved OCR support, with caching" (v1.26.5+)
Python3: Full switch to Python3 occurred with v1.25.4
Debian packaging: Split into recollcmd (command-line), recollgui (GUI), and a top-level recoll package depending on both

Notable Components & Extensions

Recoll GSSP: Gnome Shell Search Provider (v1.1.4 as of Feb 2026)
Recoll WEBUI: Web interface for remote querying, hosted on Framagit
recolldroid: Android companion server on GitLab
Browser extension: Firefox add-on for Recoll WE
Recoll-Mutt interface: Terminal-based search via the Links browser working with the WebUI
Contributed scripts: Anki flashcard indexing, Newsboat RSS reader indexing, AC power-based indexing control for laptops

License

Free on Linux, open source, and licensed under the GPL.

Current Version

1.44.0 (released June 30, 2026)

Recent News & History

Date	Event
2026-07-01	Qt/Wayland display issues: workaround is setting `QT_QPA_PLATFORM=xcb`
2026-06-30	Recoll 1.44.0 released
2025-05-06	1.43.2 fixes a static initializer bug causing crashes with gcc 15
2024-11-28	Android app published on F-Droid
2024-11-21	Flatpak made available on Flathub
2024-03-28	AppImage introduced
2024-03-08	Website moved to its own host at recoll.org
2020-03-08	Source repo and issue tracker moved to Framagit
2013-04-30	Lotus Notes filter and Web browser interface contributed by users

Documentation & Support

The project provides extensive documentation, a mailing list, and a problem tracker. The site also hosts FAQ/HowTo sections, contributed result list formats, and user-contributed articles (e.g., using Linux cgroups to limit indexing CPU usage).

Credits

"Recoll could not exist without a rich free software environment" — the site credits the broader free software ecosystem it depends on.