<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en" data-content_root="../../../"> <head> <meta charset="utf-8" /> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" /> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <title>Command Line Engines — SearXNG Documentation (2025.6.3+eb36de8d9)</title> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../../../_static/pygments.css?v=6625fa76" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../../../_static/searxng.css?v=52e4ff28" /> <script src="../../../_static/documentation_options.js?v=ddbe8e71"></script> <script src="../../../_static/doctools.js?v=9a2dae69"></script> <script src="../../../_static/sphinx_highlight.js?v=dc90522c"></script> <script data-project="searxng" data-version="2025.6.3+eb36de8d9" src="../../../_static/describe_version.js?v=fa7f30d0"></script> <link rel="index" title="Index" href="../../../genindex.html" /> <link rel="search" title="Search" href="../../../search.html" /> <link rel="next" title="NoSQL databases" href="nosql-engines.html" /> <link rel="prev" title="Demo Offline Engine" href="../demo/demo_offline.html" /> </head><body> <div class="related" role="navigation" aria-label="Related"> <h3>Navigation</h3> <ul> <li class="right" style="margin-right: 10px"> <a href="../../../genindex.html" title="General Index" accesskey="I">index</a></li> <li class="right" > <a href="../../../py-modindex.html" title="Python Module Index" >modules</a> |</li> <li class="right" > <a href="nosql-engines.html" title="NoSQL databases" accesskey="N">next</a> |</li> <li class="right" > <a href="../demo/demo_offline.html" title="Demo Offline Engine" accesskey="P">previous</a> |</li> <li class="nav-item nav-item-0"><a href="../../../index.html">SearXNG Documentation (2025.6.3+eb36de8d9)</a> »</li> <li class="nav-item nav-item-1"><a href="../../index.html" >Developer documentation</a> »</li> <li class="nav-item nav-item-2"><a href="../index.html" accesskey="U">Engine Implementations</a> »</li> <li class="nav-item nav-item-this"><a href="">Command Line Engines</a></li> </ul> </div> <div class="document"> <div class="documentwrapper"> <div class="bodywrapper"> <div class="body" role="main"> <section id="command-line-engines"> <span id="engine-command"></span><h1>Command Line Engines<a class="headerlink" href="#command-line-engines" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h1> <aside class="sidebar"> <p class="sidebar-title">info</p> <ul class="simple"> <li><p><a class="extlink-origin reference external" href="https://github.com/searxng/searxng/blob/master/searx/engines/command.py">command.py</a></p></li> <li><p><a class="reference internal" href="../index.html#offline-engines"><span class="std std-ref">Offline Engines</span></a></p></li> </ul> </aside> <nav class="contents local" id="contents"> <ul class="simple"> <li><p><a class="reference internal" href="#configuration" id="id1">Configuration</a></p></li> <li><p><a class="reference internal" href="#example" id="id2">Example</a></p></li> <li><p><a class="reference internal" href="#implementations" id="id3">Implementations</a></p></li> </ul> </nav> <aside class="sidebar"> <p class="sidebar-title">info</p> <p>Initial sponsored by <a class="reference external" href="https://nlnet.nl/discovery">Search and Discovery Fund</a> of <a class="reference external" href="https://nlnet.nl/">NLnet Foundation</a>.</p> </aside> <p id="module-searx.engines.command">With <em>command engines</em> administrators can run engines to integrate arbitrary shell commands.</p> <div class="admonition attention"> <p class="admonition-title">Attention</p> <p>When creating and enabling a <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">command</span></code> engine on a public instance, you must be careful to avoid leaking private data.</p> </div> <p>The easiest solution is to limit the access by setting <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">tokens</span></code> as described in section <a class="reference internal" href="../../../admin/settings/settings_engines.html#private-engines"><span class="std std-ref">Private Engines (tokens)</span></a>. The engine base is flexible. Only your imagination can limit the power of this engine (and maybe security concerns).</p> <section id="configuration"> <h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id1" role="doc-backlink">Configuration</a><a class="headerlink" href="#configuration" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h2> <p>The following options are available:</p> <dl> <dt><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">command</span></code>:</dt><dd><p>A comma separated list of the elements of the command. A special token <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">{{QUERY}}</span></code> tells where to put the search terms of the user. Example:</p> <div class="highlight-yaml notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="p p-Indicator">[</span><span class="s">'ls'</span><span class="p p-Indicator">,</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="s">'-l'</span><span class="p p-Indicator">,</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="s">'-h'</span><span class="p p-Indicator">,</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="s">'{{QUERY}}'</span><span class="p p-Indicator">]</span> </pre></div> </div> </dd> <dt><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">delimiter</span></code>:</dt><dd><p>A mapping containing a delimiter <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">char</span></code> and the <em>titles</em> of each element in <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">keys</span></code>.</p> </dd> <dt><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">parse_regex</span></code>:</dt><dd><p>A dict containing the regular expressions for each result key.</p> </dd> </dl> <p><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">query_type</span></code>:</p> <blockquote> <div><p>The expected type of user search terms. Possible values: <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">path</span></code> and <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">enum</span></code>.</p> <dl class="simple"> <dt><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">path</span></code>:</dt><dd><p>Checks if the user provided path is inside the working directory. If not, the query is not executed.</p> </dd> <dt><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">enum</span></code>:</dt><dd><p>Is a list of allowed search terms. If the user submits something which is not included in the list, the query returns an error.</p> </dd> </dl> </div></blockquote> <dl class="simple"> <dt><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">query_enum</span></code>:</dt><dd><p>A list containing allowed search terms if <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">query_type</span></code> is set to <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">enum</span></code>.</p> </dd> <dt><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">working_dir</span></code>:</dt><dd><p>The directory where the command has to be executed. Default: <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">./</span></code>.</p> </dd> <dt><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">result_separator</span></code>:</dt><dd><p>The character that separates results. Default: <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">\n</span></code>.</p> </dd> </dl> </section> <section id="example"> <h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id2" role="doc-backlink">Example</a><a class="headerlink" href="#example" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h2> <p>The example engine below can be used to find files with a specific name in the configured working directory:</p> <div class="highlight-yaml notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="p p-Indicator">-</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nt">name</span><span class="p">:</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="l l-Scalar l-Scalar-Plain">find</span> <span class="w"> </span><span class="nt">engine</span><span class="p">:</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="l l-Scalar l-Scalar-Plain">command</span> <span class="w"> </span><span class="nt">command</span><span class="p">:</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p p-Indicator">[</span><span class="s">'find'</span><span class="p p-Indicator">,</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="s">'.'</span><span class="p p-Indicator">,</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="s">'-name'</span><span class="p p-Indicator">,</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="s">'{{QUERY}}'</span><span class="p p-Indicator">]</span> <span class="w"> </span><span class="nt">query_type</span><span class="p">:</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="l l-Scalar l-Scalar-Plain">path</span> <span class="w"> </span><span class="nt">shortcut</span><span class="p">:</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="l l-Scalar l-Scalar-Plain">fnd</span> <span class="w"> </span><span class="nt">delimiter</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="w"> </span><span class="nt">chars</span><span class="p">:</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="s">'</span><span class="nv"> </span><span class="s">'</span> <span class="w"> </span><span class="nt">keys</span><span class="p">:</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="p p-Indicator">[</span><span class="s">'line'</span><span class="p p-Indicator">]</span> </pre></div> </div> </section> <section id="implementations"> <h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id3" role="doc-backlink">Implementations</a><a class="headerlink" href="#implementations" title="Link to this heading">¶</a></h2> </section> <dl class="py function"> <dt class="sig sig-object py" id="searx.engines.command.check_parsing_options"> <span class="sig-prename descclassname"><span class="pre">searx.engines.command.</span></span><span class="sig-name descname"><span class="pre">check_parsing_options</span></span><span class="sig-paren">(</span><em class="sig-param"><span class="n"><span class="pre">engine_settings</span></span></em><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="reference internal" href="../../../_modules/searx/engines/command.html#check_parsing_options"><span class="viewcode-link"><span class="pre">[source]</span></span></a><a class="headerlink" href="#searx.engines.command.check_parsing_options" title="Link to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Checks if delimiter based parsing or regex parsing is configured correctly</p> </dd></dl> </section> <div class="clearer"></div> </div> </div> </div> <span id="sidebar-top"></span> <div class="sphinxsidebar" role="navigation" aria-label="Main"> <div class="sphinxsidebarwrapper"> <p class="logo"><a href="../../../index.html"> <img class="logo" src="../../../_static/searxng-wordmark.svg" alt="Logo of SearXNG"/> </a></p> <h3><a href="../../../index.html">Table of Contents</a></h3> <ul class="current"> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="../../../user/index.html">User information</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="../../../own-instance.html">Why use a private instance?</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="../../../admin/index.html">Administrator documentation</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1 current"><a 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