# Recoll user manual
Searching with the Qt graphical user interface

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### Multiple indexes

See the section describing the use of multiple indexes for generalities. Only the aspects concerning the recoll GUI are described here.

A recoll program instance is always associated with a specific index, which is the one to be updated when requested from the File menu, but it can use any number of Recoll indexes for searching. The external indexes can be selected through the external indexes tab in the preferences dialog.

Index selection is performed in two phases. A set of all usable indexes must first be defined, and then the subset of indexes to be used for searching. These parameters are retained across program executions (there are kept separately for each Recoll configuration). The set of all indexes is usually quite stable, while the active ones might typically be adjusted quite frequently.

The main index (defined by `RECOLL_CONFDIR`) is always active. If this is undesirable, you can set up your base configuration to index an empty directory.

When adding a new index to the set, you can select either a Recoll configuration directory, or directly a Xapian index directory. In the first case, the Xapian index directory will be obtained from the selected configuration.

As building the set of all indexes can be a little tedious when done through the user interface, you can use the `RECOLL_EXTRA_DBS` environment variable to provide an initial set. This might typically be set up by a system administrator so that every user does not have to do it. The variable should define a colon-separated list of index directories, ie:

    export RECOLL_EXTRA_DBS=/some/place/xapiandb:/some/other/db

Another environment variable, `RECOLL_ACTIVE_EXTRA_DBS` allows adding to the active list of indexes. This variable was suggested and implemented by a Recoll user. It is mostly useful if you use scripts to mount external volumes with Recoll indexes. By using `RECOLL_EXTRA_DBS` and `RECOLL_ACTIVE_EXTRA_DBS`, you can add and activate the index for the mounted volume when starting recoll.

`RECOLL_ACTIVE_EXTRA_DBS` is available for Recoll versions 1.17.2 and later. A change was made in the same update so that recoll will automatically deactivate unreachable indexes when starting up.

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