Reclaiming Sphinx Search as a non-root user

Maricris Nonato -

Okay, you're probably wondering why your searchd daemon won't bind to your desired port and this looks a like a familiar screen dump to you:

WARNING: compat_sphinxql_magics=1 is deprecated; please update your application and config
listening on 127.0.0.1:9306
bind() failed on 127.0.0.1, retrying...
bind() failed on 127.0.0.1, retrying...
bind() failed on 127.0.0.1, retrying...
bind() failed on 127.0.0.1, retrying...
bind() failed on 127.0.0.1, retrying...
FATAL: bind() failed on 127.0.0.1: Address already in use

Here's what to do:

  1. Check for running searchd instances. You might have another instance running on your desired port.

ps aux | grep "searchd"

  1. To check for processes running and who runs them, you can execute:

ps -ef | fgrep searchd

  1. If you find some running instances, kill those PID numbers. Or, you can simply kill all running searchd instances (be careful if you're not the only app/user running searchd).

killall searchd

  1. If you find that your process is being run by root, then it will keep respawning if it is set as a service. You can edit vim /etc/default/sphinxsearch and modify it from START=yes to START=no

  2. ???

  3. Try to run your searchd again, and hopefully you'll get a successful start now.

Happy coding!

Image credits: https://briansnelson.com/images/2/26/Sphinxsearch.jpg