install

Additional install commands

macOS

Homebrewverified · 100%

brew install omega

local Homebrew formula metadata

MacPortsverified · 94%

sudo port install Omega

MacPorts ports tree · lang/Omega/Portfile · source: api.github.com

overview

Package summary

Packaged search engine for websites, built on top of Xapian

Project links

Commands and aliases

dbi2omega
mbox2omega
omindex
omindex-list
scriptindex

history

Project history and usage

Omega is Xapian's packaged website and intranet search application: indexers such as omindex and scriptindex build Xapian databases, and the omega CGI program provides a customizable search front end. It turns the Xapian library from an embeddable C++ search toolkit into something an operator can deploy on a web server.

Project history

Omega's history is bound to Xapian. The Xapian project traces its code lineage through Open Muscat, a GPL release derived from earlier Muscat information-retrieval work, and Xapian 0.5.0 was released on September 20, 2002.

Omega 1.0.0 shipped on May 17, 2007 in the Xapian release family and included UTF-8 operation for Omega and its indexers. Later Omega releases continued to track Xapian's stable branches, with the download page grouping xapian-core, omega, and language bindings as the project's release trio.

Adoption history

Omega filled a practical niche: small sites, documentation collections, and intranets could get full-text search without writing an application directly against Xapian's API. A 2008 Linux.com walkthrough presented Xapian plus Omega as a quick way to index HTML, PDF, PHP, and other content for a website search interface.

Distribution packaging reinforces that operational role. Debian's xapian-omega package description lists the omega CGI app, omindex, and scriptindex, while MacPorts and Homebrew expose the same package-family idea to macOS users.

How it is used

Operators create or update one or more Xapian databases with omindex or scriptindex, then point the omega CGI application at those databases. Omega can search multiple databases and use templates and CGI parameters to shape the web result page.

scriptindex matters for package nerds because it turns arbitrary structured input into a Xapian database using an indexing script. That makes Omega useful beyond static website crawling: it can index mailboxes, generated metadata, and custom document streams.

Why package nerds care

Omega is interesting because it packages an information-retrieval library as Unix-style tools: indexers, converters, a CGI binary, configuration files, and documentation. It is search infrastructure in the classic distro sense, not a hosted search service or framework plugin.

It also preserves the CGI-era deployment model in a maintained search stack. That makes it a useful artifact for understanding how full-text search was commonly bolted onto websites before every application framework grew its own search integration story.

Timeline

September 20, 2002: Xapian 0.5.0 is released after earlier Open Muscat and OmSee lineage.
May 17, 2007: Omega 1.0.0 ships with UTF-8 support for Omega and the indexers.
October 3, 2008: Linux.com publishes a practical guide for adding website search with Xapian and Omega.
March 16, 2026: Omega 2.0.0 release notes add click logging and training-data support for xapian-letor and remove obsolete htdig2omega scripts.

Related projects

Omega is one member of the Xapian family beside xapian-core and xapian-bindings. Related search packages in the same mental shelf include Recoll, Swish-e, Lucene/Solr, and Sphinx, but Omega's distinguishing shape is a CGI frontend plus Xapian-native indexing tools.

Sources

security posture

Risk level: green

narrow executable package without higher-risk signals.

Risk classifier

green risk · low confidence · appliance

Why

narrow executable package without higher-risk signals

Signals

metadata:no-higher-risk-signals

Install behavior

No Homebrew post-install hook is recorded in formula metadata.
Homebrew bottle metadata is available for 6 platform targets.
Installs with 3 runtime dependencies.
Build metadata lists 1 build dependencies.

Recommended review

Before unattended agent use, check whether the tool reads plaintext credentials, writes remote state, publishes artifacts, or shells out to plugins.

local files

Configuration and credential file locations

These source-backed paths show where this package keeps local settings or durable credentials. Automic Vault can use them as review targets for secret scanning, migration, and command approval.

Configuration files

Config paths the tool may read or write during local use.

Unix: $OMEGA_CONFIG_FILEomega.conf${sysconfdir}/omega.conf

executables

Installed executables

Command	Kind	Exposure
`dbi2omega`	cli	global executable
`mbox2omega`	cli	global executable
`omindex`	cli	global executable
`omindex-list`	cli	global executable
`scriptindex`	cli	global executable

freshness

Version and freshness

These signals separate page generation age, package-manager activity, and upstream release comparison. Version lag is warned only when an evidence URL and comparable versions are present.

page generated2026-07-08

manager version2.0.0

manager updated

local dataok

upstreamnot checked

latest detectednot detected

https://xapian.org/

infoNo package-manager update timestamp was available.low confidence
infoRelease/tag comparison is only available for GitHub repositories.https://xapian.org/none confidence

install metadata

Package metadata

Package key	brew:omega
Version	2.0.0
Package manager	Homebrew
Package manager page	https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/omega
Homepage	https://xapian.org/
Repository	https://git.xapian.org/xapian
Upstream docs	https://xapian.org/docs
License	GPL-2.0-or-later
Source archive	https://oligarchy.co.uk/xapian/2.0.0/xapian-omega-2.0.0.tar.xz
Dependencies	libmagic, pcre2, xapian
Build dependencies	pkgconf
Bottle	available (on arm64_linux, arm64_sequoia, arm64_sonoma, arm64_tahoe, sonoma, x86_64_linux)
Homebrew post-install	not defined
Service	none declared

registry facts

Source database details

Source Database	Homebrew formula API
Tap	homebrew/core
Full Name	omega
Version Scheme	0
Revision	0
Bottle Stable Root URL	https://ghcr.io/v2/homebrew/core
Deprecated	no
Disabled	no
Keg Only	no
URL Keys	stable

source database matches

Other package-manager records

Matches are pulled from external package-manager indexes and kept separate from local Automic Vault package links.

MacPorts95%

Omega

sudo port install Omega

normalized package name match
Matched by: Omega

MacPorts ports tree · api.github.com · MacPorts ports tree: lang/Omega/Portfile from https://api.github.com/repos/macports/macports-ports/git/trees/master?recursive=1

package graph

Links come from deterministic package relationships, av.db category and tag curation, ecosystem matches, and package hub membership.

source trail

Generated from repository data

This page is generated by av-web from the private package SQLite artifact built by scripts/generate-pkg-sqlite.py.

Combined YAML source

View the package source record on GitHub.

combined/omega.yml

Used sources

Geiger risk classifier
Nucleus package database
av.db category and tag curation
cross-ecosystem install command graph
curated configuration and credential file locations
curated package history
external package-manager database matches
package relationship graph
package version freshness
package-page enrichment

Install omega with Homebrew, MacPorts