# Xapian

C++ search engine library for adding indexing and search to applications, with bindings for several programming languages.


Source: https://findsoftware.frbit.cloud/xapian/
Last reviewed: 2026-10-28
Listed since: 2026-10-28

## Record

### Links

- home: https://xapian.org/
- repository: https://github.com/xapian/xapian
- docs: https://xapian.org/docs/

### Identity

- status: active
- maintainer: The Xapian Project
- maintainerType: unknown
- parent: unknown
- firstRelease: 2002
- hqCountry: unknown

### Kind

- category: search
- hosting: binary
- language: cpp
- runtime: binary
- runtimeMin: unknown
- basedOn: unknown

### Content

- contentStore: not applicable
- databases: not applicable
- adminUi: not applicable
- headlessApi: not applicable
- templating: not applicable
- i18n: not applicable

### Rendering and deploy

- runsAs: unknown
- renderingModes: not applicable
- installMethod: source tarball, configure and make

### License

- licenseModel: open-source
- license: GPL-2.0-or-later

### Releases

- currentMajor: 2
- latestReleaseDate: 2026-08-13

### Adoption

- githubStargazers: 878
- packagistDownloads: not applicable
- npmWeeklyDownloads: not applicable
- contributors: 50
- pluginCount: unknown
- packagistMonthlyDownloads: unknown
- ecosystemsMonthlyDownloads: unknown
- httpArchiveSites: unknown
- wordpressActiveInstalls: unknown
- dependentRepos: unknown
- dependentPackages: unknown

### Sources

- urls: https://xapian.org/ (read 2026-10-28)
- urls: https://api.github.com/repos/xapian/xapian (read 2026-10-28)
- urls: https://xapian.org/docs/ (read 2026-10-28)
- maintainer: https://xapian.org/download/ (read 2026-10-28)
- language: https://api.github.com/repos/xapian/xapian (read 2026-10-28)
- runtime: https://xapian.org/docs/install.html (read 2026-10-28)
- category: https://xapian.org/ (read 2026-10-28)
- license: https://xapian.org/ (read 2026-10-28)
- installMethod: https://xapian.org/docs/install.html (read 2026-10-28)
- installMethod: https://xapian.org/download (read 2026-10-28)
- currentMajor: https://api.github.com/repos/xapian/xapian/tags (read 2026-10-28)
- latestReleaseDate: https://xapian.org/ (read 2026-10-28)
- firstRelease: https://xapian.org/history.html (read 2026-10-28)
- firstRelease: https://api.github.com/repos/xapian/xapian/git/refs/tags/v0.5.0 (read 2026-10-28)
- githubStargazers: https://api.github.com/repos/xapian/xapian (read 2026-10-28)
- contributors: https://api.github.com/repos/xapian/xapian/contributors?per_page=1 (read 2026-10-28)

## Notes

Xapian is a C++ search engine library that an application links against to add indexing and search, so the search runs inside the application's own process. The project maintains language bindings for several other languages, among them Python, PHP, Java, Ruby and C#. Omega, a search application built on the library, comes from the same source tree.

Packaged builds are available from most Linux distributions and BSD systems, and the project also publishes source tarballs that are built with configure and make. The [installation guide](https://xapian.org/docs/install.html) covers the source route on UNIX systems, macOS and Windows.

## Worth knowing

The library is licensed under the GPL, version 2 or later, which sets the terms for distributing an application that links it.

---

Data licensed CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Attributes are recorded, never scored; absent means unknown.
Credit, in full: FindSoftware, CC BY 4.0