---
name: "xapian-delve"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "xapian-core"
version: "1:2.1.0-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/xapian-delve"
---

# xapian-delve(1)

Inspect the contents of a Xapian database

## NAME

delve - Inspect the contents of a Xapian database

## SYNOPSIS

**delve** \[*OPTIONS*\] *DATABASE*...

## DESCRIPTION

delve - Inspect the contents of a Xapian database

## OPTIONS

- **-a**

  show all terms in the database

- **-A** \<prefix\>

  show all terms in the database with given prefix

- **-r** \<recno\>

  for term list(s)

- **-t** \<term\>

  for posting list(s)

- **-t** \<term\> **-r** \<recno\>

  for position list(s)

- **-s**, **--stemmer**=*LANG*

  set the stemming language, the default is 'none'

- **-1**

  output one list entry per line

- **-V\[**\<type\>\]\<valueno\>

  output value valueno for each document referred to (or each document in the database if no **-r** options). \<type\> can be: E: escape in a C-like way (default) I: decode as a packed integer R: show the raw value (which may contain binary data,

- newlines, invalid UTF-8, etc)

  S: decode using Xapian::sortable\_unserialise()

- **-V\[**\<type\>\]

  output all values for each document referred to. \<type\> is as above.

- **-d**

  output document data for each document referred to

- **-z**

  for db, count documents with length 0

- **-v**

  extra info (wdf and len for postlist; wdf and termfreq for termlist; number of terms for db; termfreq when showing all terms; value bounds and freq when showing all values in a slot)

- **-vv**

  even more info (also show collection freq and wdf upper bound for terms)

- **--help**

  display this help and exit

- **--version**

  output version information and exit