Start/notes.ini Parameters/FT_INDEX_IGNORE_ATTACHMENT_TYPES

FT_INDEX_IGNORE_ATTACHMENT_TYPES

Parameter: FT_INDEX_IGNORE_ATTACHMENT_TYPES
Short description: Extends the FT indexer's default ignore list with additional file extensions that should not be included in the full-text index.

Profile

Parameter
FT_INDEX_IGNORE_ATTACHMENT_TYPES
Category
Performance / Memory
Component
Server, client
Available since
5.0.4 (introduced via SPR ASHH48UM5T); consistently documented since 9.0.1
Supported versions
9.0.1, 10.0, 11.0, 12.0, 14.0, 14.5, 14.5.1
GUI equivalent
Configuration document (NOTES.INI tab) or Desktop Settings policy → Custom Settings → notes.ini
Possible values
Comma-separated list with wildcards (*), no spaces, max. 256 characters — e.g. *.asf,*.avi,*.bin,*.bmp,*.dat,*.iso

Description

FT_INDEX_IGNORE_ATTACHMENT_TYPES extends the FT indexer's default ignore list with additional file extensions that should not be included in the full-text index via the Apache Tika conversion filter. The setting is the established blacklist solution for excluding large binary formats (videos, disk images, executable files, etc.) without modifying the default whitelist.
The default ignore list already includes extensions such as *.au, *.bqy, *.cca, *.dbd, *.dll, *.exe, *.gif, *.gz, *.img, *.jar, *.jpg, *.mov, *.mp3, *.mpg, *.msi, *.nsf, *.ntf, *.p7m, *.p7s, *.pag, *.pdb, *.png, *.rar, *.sys, *.tar, *.tif, *.wav, *.wpl, *.z, *.zip. With FT_INDEX_IGNORE_ATTACHMENT_TYPES, these default extensions are supplemented together with your own entries — the resulting overall ignore list is therefore a union.
Typical use: servers with a large proportion of multimedia files (*.asf, *.avi, *.mpeg, *.wmv, *.swf) or forensic/backup containers, whose indexing unnecessarily burdens CPU and memory.

Example configuration

FT_INDEX_IGNORE_ATTACHMENT_TYPES=*.asf,*.avi,*.bin,*.bmp,*.dat,*.iso,*.mpeg,*.ogg,*.qz,*.rm,*.so,*.swf,*.wmv
Runtime variant (server console):
set config FT_INDEX_IGNORE_ATTACHMENT_TYPES=*.asf,*.avi,*.bin

Notes & pitfalls

  • Specify extensions with wildcard syntax (*.bin), separated by comma, no spaces.
  • With an active whitelist (FT_USE_ATTACHMENT_WHITE_LIST=1 or FT_USE_MY_ATTACHMENT_WHITE_LIST=1), the whitelist takes precedence over this ignore list.
  • Change only takes effect after a rebuild of the FT index (load updall -f).

Sources (HCL Product Documentation)