Installation

Download and launch

Download the latest stable release of MeiliSearch with curl.

Launch MeiliSearch to start the server.

# Install MeiliSearch
curl -L https://install.meilisearch.com | sh

# Launch MeiliSearch
./meilisearch

Download the latest stable release of MeiliSearch with Homebrew.

Launch MeiliSearch to start the server.

# Update brew and install MeiliSearch
brew update && brew install meilisearch

# Launch MeiliSearch
meilisearch

Using Docker you can choose to run any available tags (opens new window).

This command starts the latest stable release of MeiliSearch.

docker run -it --rm \
    -p 7700:7700 \
    -v $(pwd)/data.ms:/data.ms \
    getmeili/meilisearch

Data written to a Docker container is not persistent and is deleted along with the container when the latter is stopped. Docker volumes are not deleted when containers are removed. It is then recommended to share volumes between your containers and your host machine to provide persistent storage. MeiliSearch writes data to /data.ms

Download the latest stable release of MeiliSearch with APT.

Launch MeiliSearch to start the server.

# Add MeiliSearch package
echo "deb [trusted=yes] https://apt.fury.io/meilisearch/ /" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/fury.list

# Update APT and install MeiliSearch
apt update && apt install meilisearch-http

# Launch MeiliSearch
meilisearch

MeiliSearch is written in Rust. To compile it, installing the Rust toolchain (opens new window) is required.

If the Rust toolchain is already installed, clone the repository on your local system and change it to your working directory.

git clone https://github.com/meilisearch/MeiliSearch
cd MeiliSearch

In the cloned repository, compile MeiliSearch.

# Update the rust toolchain to the latest version
rustup update

# Compile the project
cargo build --release

# Execute the server binary
./target/release/meilisearch

After launching MeiliSearch, you should see the following response:

888b     d888          d8b 888 d8b  .d8888b.                                    888
8888b   d8888          Y8P 888 Y8P d88P  Y88b                                   888
88888b.d88888              888     Y88b.                                        888
888Y88888P888  .d88b.  888 888 888  "Y888b.    .d88b.   8888b.  888d888 .d8888b 88888b.
888 Y888P 888 d8P  Y8b 888 888 888     "Y88b. d8P  Y8b     "88b 888P"  d88P"    888 "88b
888  Y8P  888 88888888 888 888 888       "888 88888888 .d888888 888    888      888  888
888   "   888 Y8b.     888 888 888 Y88b  d88P Y8b.     888  888 888    Y88b.    888  888
888       888  "Y8888  888 888 888  "Y8888P"   "Y8888  "Y888888 888     "Y8888P 888  888

Database path:       "./data.ms"
Server listening on: "127.0.0.1:7700"

Configuration Options

Configuration options are added at launch, either through command line options or through environment variables.

This is an example using the command line options.

./meilisearch --db-path ./meilifiles --http-addr '127.0.0.1:7700'

Here is a list of all the options and how to use them.

Updating MeiliSearch

Getting the latest version of MeiliSearch is a straightforward process: simply fetch and install the latest binary with your preferred method (see installation above).

However, please note that prior to our official release (v1.0), all minor updates (v0.X) are considered breaking. Therefore, MeiliSearch databases are not compatible across versions for as long as we are in beta.

If you want to transfer your database from an outdated MeiliSearch instance to the most recent version, we recommend following the below guide.

If you get the error Cannot open database, expected MeiliSearch engine version: X.X.X, current engine version Y.Y.Y, simply delete your database folder (defaults to data.ms), and re-index all your documents.

Migrating a Database to a Later Version

Using dumps, you can export your MeiliSearch data—all indexes, documents, and settings contained in your database—into a transferrable state. Then, you can re-import this data after updating MeiliSearch to the latest version.

Since the content is exported in a way that guarantees mobility, it needs to be re-indexed. If your database is large, this process can take a long time. Nonetheless, this process guarantees to migrate all settings and documents between two different versions of MeiliSearch.

If you want a complete guide on how to update MeiliSearch on DigitalOcean, please look at this GitHub issue (opens new window).