xfilter

Local-postings filter built on xcommon.sh, word-at-a-time, and rchive -query. It consumes UIDs from stdin or command-line sources, applies a query expression against a local postings index, and emits either raw filtered UIDs or an ENTREZ_DIRECT wrapper message.

Quick Start

• Command: xfilter -query "<expression>"
• Local executable: /home/vimalinx/miniforge3/envs/bio/bin/xfilter
• Critical environment: EDIRECT_LOCAL_ARCHIVE

When To Use This Tool

• Filtering UIDs against a local postings index instead of using remote efilter
• Narrowing a local UID set with a query expression after xfetch/xsearch-style workflows
• Producing either raw UID output (-raw) or an ENTREZ_DIRECT XML wrapper for downstream local tools
• Working inside a fully local PubMed/PMC archive setup

Common Patterns

# Filter a UID stream with a local query
printf '2539356\n' | xfilter -db pubmed -query 'dna repair'

# Emit raw UIDs instead of ENTREZ_DIRECT XML
printf '2539356\n' | xfilter -db pubmed -raw -query 'dna repair'

# Show usage
xfilter -h

Recommended Workflow

1. Ensure the local postings environment is configured through EDIRECT_LOCAL_ARCHIVE.
2. Supply UIDs by -id, -input, stdin, or an upstream ENTREZ_DIRECT message.
3. Use -query with the local postings syntax you intend to test.
4. Add -raw only when a downstream stage expects plain UID lines instead of wrapper XML.

Guardrails

• This is a local-postings query tool, not a remote Entrez filter.
• -h/--help are safe and show usage examples; --version is not supported and locally triggered the missing-path error plus ERROR: Unrecognized option --version.
• Source inspection shows xfilter always calls FindPostingsFolder before querying, so a valid local postings directory is mandatory.
• In live testing without local postings configured, printf '2539356\n' | xfilter -db pubmed -query 'dna repair' failed with Unable to get folder Postings for database pubmed.
• Query handling prepends [PIPE] AND in the common case, and UID input is tokenized through word-at-a-time before being sent to rchive -query.