Configuration¶

Dead Simple Search is configured entirely through environment variables. This means you don't need to edit any configuration files — you set values in your shell or your deployment platform, and the application reads them when it starts.

What's an environment variable?

An environment variable is a named value that lives outside your application code. It's a common way to configure software, especially in server environments. You set one by typing something like export MYSQL_PASSWORD=secret in your terminal before running the app.

Database settings¶

These tell Dead Simple Search how to connect to your MySQL database.

Variable	Default	Description
`MYSQL_HOST`	`127.0.0.1`	The address of your MySQL server
`MYSQL_PORT`	`3306`	The port MySQL is listening on
`MYSQL_USER`	`deadsimplesearch`	Database username
`MYSQL_PASSWORD`	`deadsimplesearchpass`	Database password
`MYSQL_DATABASE`	`deadsimplesearch`	Name of the database to use

Change the default password

The default password is only meant for local development. Always set a strong MYSQL_PASSWORD in production.

Crawler settings¶

These control how the crawler behaves when visiting your website.

Variable	Default	Description
`CRAWL_DELAY_SECONDS`	`1.0`	Seconds to wait between requests. This is a "politeness" setting — it avoids overloading the target server.
`CRAWL_MAX_PAGES_PER_SITE`	`10000`	Maximum number of pages to crawl per site in a single run.
`CRAWL_REQUEST_TIMEOUT`	`30`	How many seconds to wait for a single page to respond before giving up.
`CRAWL_USER_AGENT`	`DeadSimpleSearchBot/1.0 (+https://example.com/bot)`	The name the crawler identifies itself with when visiting pages. Website owners can see this in their server logs.

Crawl delay explained: When the crawler visits a website, it pauses between each page request. A delay of 1.0 seconds means it fetches at most one page per second. Lower values make the crawl faster but put more load on the target server. Be respectful — most website owners appreciate crawlers that don't hammer their servers.

Scheduler settings¶

The scheduler lets you automatically re-crawl all your registered sites at regular intervals (that's what "scheduled" means — it runs on a timer, like a recurring alarm).

Variable	Default	Description
`SCHEDULER_ENABLED`	`false`	Set to `true` to enable automatic re-crawling.
`SCHEDULER_INTERVAL_HOURS`	`24`	How many hours between each re-crawl run.

Example — re-crawl every 12 hours:

SCHEDULER_ENABLED=true SCHEDULER_INTERVAL_HOURS=12 python app.py

Flask settings¶

These control the web server itself.

Variable	Default	Description
`FLASK_HOST`	`0.0.0.0`	The network address to listen on. `0.0.0.0` means "accept connections from anywhere."
`FLASK_PORT`	`5555`	The port number the API listens on.
`FLASK_DEBUG`	`false`	Set to `true` for development. Gives more detailed error messages but should never be used in production.

Example: production setup¶

Here's what a typical production launch might look like:

export MYSQL_HOST=db.internal.example.com
export MYSQL_PASSWORD=a-very-strong-password
export MYSQL_DATABASE=deadsimplesearch
export CRAWL_DELAY_SECONDS=1.5
export CRAWL_USER_AGENT="MySearchBot/1.0 (+https://mysite.com/bot)"
export SCHEDULER_ENABLED=true
export SCHEDULER_INTERVAL_HOURS=24
export FLASK_PORT=8080

python app.py

Using a process manager

For production, consider running Dead Simple Search behind a process manager like systemd or supervisor. This ensures it restarts automatically if it crashes, and makes it easy to manage as a service on your server.