How to Create a Search Engine With SearXNG

SearXNG is a powerful meta-search engine that you can host anywhere. Unlike traditional search engines, SearXNG is an engine aggregator: instead of processing searches, it uses other engines to do the searching. Further, SearXNG is incredibly lightweight and easy to set up, and you can host it on a system as simple as a Raspberry Pi!

Also read: How to Make Blinking LEDs With the Raspberry Pi

Why Install SearXNG

Search engines make it incredibly convenient to browse and discover the Web. However, using a public search engine comes with a price: modern search companies such as Google use your search data to create a highly accurate profile of you.

This behavior can feel intrusive to individuals who want to keep their searches private and anonymous. For example, journalists who are reporting about sensitive and controversial topics may not want to have their search queries associated with their names.

One way to deal with this privacy issue is to install and host your own instance of SearXNG to ensure that only you will have access to your search logs.

Also read: 4 Ways Google Tracks You and How to Stop it

What You’ll Need

SearXNG requires you to have a few things ready before you can install it:

• A Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN): to use SearXNG, you need to host it through a proper web server with a domain.
• A machine accessible from outside your home network: this can either be a computer at your home that has a Static IP address or a dedicated Virtual Private Server (VPS) that you are renting.
• Root access to your machine: SearXNG requires you to install some system tools to configure and host it properly.

This tutorial focuses on installing and setting up SearXNG on a Debian 11 VPS from DigitalOcean.

Installing SearXNG’s Dependencies

Before you can install SearXNG, you need to create a separate user account in your system:

sudo useradd -s /bin/bash -d /home/searx -m -G sudo searx
sudo passwd searx

Doing this allows you to isolate all the commands and files when installing and configuring SearXNG. It can be especially useful if you intend to host the search engine on a VPS with multiple services.

Switch to the new user account by running su searx, then install all the necessary dependencies for SearXNG:

sudo apt install git nginx iptables iptables-persistent ufw certbot python3-certbot-nginx

Configuring Your Firewall

While this is not a necessary step, configuring your firewall ensures that any outside system will only be able to access ports that you authorize to help prevent any malicious actors from flooding your machine with endless requests.

You can use both iptables and ufw to enable only the ports that SearXNG needs:

sudo iptables -I INPUT -m state --state NEW -p tcp --dport 80 -j ACCEPT
sudo iptables -I INPUT -m state --state NEW -p tcp --dport 443 -j ACCEPT
sudo netfilter-persistent save
sudo ufw allow 80
sudo ufw allow 443

• The two iptables commands create a new rule that accepts any new incoming HTTP and HTTPS connections, allowing your system to serve the SearXNG webpage to your users.
• The netfilter-persistent command saves and reloads any changes that you make to your firewall to ensure that your machine has the right settings in between system restarts.
• The two ufw commands ensure that any current connection in either HTTP or HTTPS remains open for the duration of the session.

Also read: How to Install Your Own Federated Twitter with Pleroma

Cloning and Installing SearXNG

SearXNG’s developers offer a simple installation script that handles most of the complicated configuration steps.

Obtain this installation script by cloning the program’s GitHub repository:

git clone https://github.com/searxng/searxng searxng && cd searxng

Once the cloning is complete, start the installation process:

sudo -H ./utils/searxng.sh install all

While this process is largely automatic, there are instances where the script asks you to confirm the changes it is making. For example, when the SearXNG script prints a list of programs that it will install, you need to press Y to continue.

Configuring SearXNG

You need to configure a web server that will broadcast SearXNG, as the search engine is just a process that takes requests and posts results. Without a proper web server, it is not possible to interact with and use SearXNG.

Currently, SearXNG officially supports both Apache and Nginx. This section focuses on configuring SearXNG as a standalone service using Nginx.

Also read: 5 Tools to Easily Create a Custom Linux Distro

Configuring Nginx

Create a new configuration file under “/etc/nginx/sites-available/”:

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/searxng

Write a server block inside the file that will contain the web server’s configuration. For example, this is a basic block that I am using for my SearXNG instance:

server {
 
    # Ports.
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80;
 
    # Hostname.
    server_name yetanothersearxserver.xyz;
 
    # Logging.
    access_log /dev/null;
    error_log  /dev/null;
 
    # Searx Redirect.
    location / {
        uwsgi_pass unix:///usr/local/searxng/run/socket;
 
        include uwsgi_params;
 
        uwsgi_param    HTTP_HOST             $host;
        uwsgi_param    HTTP_CONNECTION       $http_connection;
 
        # see flaskfix.py
        uwsgi_param    HTTP_X_SCHEME         $scheme;
        uwsgi_param    HTTP_X_SCRIPT_NAME    /searxng;
 
        # see limiter.py
        uwsgi_param    HTTP_X_REAL_IP        $remote_addr;
        uwsgi_param    HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR  $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
 
    }
}

• The listen variables tell Nginx that the web server broadcasts a service at port 80. It is important to change this value if you are already running a different virtual host in your system.
• server_name is a variable that should contain an FQDN that points to your machine. In my case, my webserver uses “yetanothersearxserver.xyz.”
• The access_log and error_log variables tell Nginx where to save information about your search queries. For example, setting it to “/dev/null” ensures that you are not saving any logs in the machine.
• The location block tells Nginx what to do whenever a user connects to the web server.

Also read: How to Customize Your Linux Terminal Prompt Using Starship

Installing SSL and Enabling SearXNG

Creating an SSL certificate for your SearXNG instance ensures that every connection you make to your website is secure.

Easily enable SSL for free by signing up with Lets Encrypt‘s certbot. For example, I can run the following command to issue a certificate for my SearXNG host:

certbot --nginx yetanothersearxserver.xyz

Enable your website through Nginx by creating a symbolic link to the web server’s “sites_enabled” folder:

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/searx /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

Reload both SearXNG and Nginx to apply and enable your configurations:

sudo systemctl reload nginx
sudo service uwsgi restart searxng

Also read: What Is the Matrix Protocol and How to Install It

Frequently Asked Questions

Image credit: Isaac Quesada via Unsplash, altered by Ramces Red with SearXNG Logo and Wordmark. All screenshots by Ramces Red.

Ramces Red - Staff Writer

Ramces is a technology writer that lived with computers all his life. A prolific reader and a student of Anthropology, he is an eccentric character that writes articles about Linux and anything *nix.