Linux for Translators

Text searching, indexing and retrieval utilities

This page deals with Linux utilities which are particularly useful during the translation process itself, irrespective of whether they were originally intended for translators.

Text searching, indexing and retrieval utilities fall broadly into two categories: those which search a body of data, such as a file, a number of files, or the files contained in a designated directory or group of directories; and those which first create an index of the data in these files, and then allow searches of the index.

Search utilities that build up a database in which the actual search is performed result in much faster searches. Their drawback is that when indexing is performed in the background, it may impair overall system performance.

Modern Linux distributions often include a desktop search utility (possibly an indexing utility) as standard

> TranslateOnLinux: Desktop search utilities