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Apache Nutch
Scalable, extensible Java web crawler for large‑scale data collection
Apache Nutch is a Java‑based, highly extensible web crawler that scales from single machines to Hadoop clusters, offering plugin support, flexible configuration, and integration with popular IDEs.
Overview
Overview
Apache Nutch is a Java‑based web crawler designed for both small‑scale projects and massive distributed crawls. Its modular plugin system lets developers add custom parsers, fetchers, and indexers, while the core engine handles URL scheduling, duplicate detection, and politeness.
Capabilities & Deployment
Nutch runs on a single JVM or integrates with Hadoop for parallel crawling across clusters. Configuration is driven by nutch-site.xml, where you define the user‑agent, plugin folders, and protocol settings. Build and execution are managed through Ant scripts, and the project can be imported into IDEs such as Eclipse or IntelliJ IDEA for debugging and extension. The crawler outputs crawl databases, segments, and index files that can be fed into search platforms like Solr or Elasticsearch.
Designed for developers, researchers, and enterprises that need fine‑grained control over crawl behavior, Nutch provides a robust foundation for building custom search solutions, data‑mining pipelines, and web archives.
Highlights
Plugin architecture for custom parsing, indexing, and fetching
Native Hadoop integration for distributed crawling
Configurable via nutch-site.xml with support for multiple protocols
Command‑line tools and Ant scripts for automated crawls
Pros
- Highly extensible through a modular plugin system
- Scales from local execution to Hadoop clusters
- Mature codebase with active community support
- Supports multiple data formats and protocols
Considerations
- Steep learning curve for configuration and plugin development
- Java‑only runtime limits language flexibility
- Manual build steps (Ant) can be cumbersome
- Limited out‑of‑the‑box UI for crawl monitoring
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Fit guide
Great for
- Researchers needing large‑scale web data for analysis
- Enterprises building custom search indexes
- Developers requiring fine‑grained control over crawl behavior
- Teams comfortable with Java and command‑line tooling
Not ideal when
- Users seeking a turnkey, point‑and‑click crawler
- Projects limited to Python or other non‑Java ecosystems
- Small one‑off scrapes where overhead outweighs benefits
- Organizations without Hadoop or cluster infrastructure
How teams use it
Academic web‑graph research
Generate a comprehensive link graph for citation analysis
E‑commerce price monitoring
Continuously crawl competitor product pages and feed pricing engine
News aggregation
Harvest articles from thousands of news sites for a custom portal
Digital archiving
Capture and store historical web snapshots for preservation
Tech snapshot
Java97%
HTML2%
Shell1%
Dockerfile1%
XSLT1%
Rich Text Format1%
Frequently asked questions
What programming language does Nutch use?
Nutch is written in Java and runs on any JVM.
Can Nutch run on a single machine?
Yes, it can be executed locally without Hadoop for small crawls.
How does Nutch achieve distributed crawling?
It integrates with Hadoop MapReduce, allowing crawl tasks to be parallelized across a cluster.
What is the primary way to configure Nutch?
Configuration is managed through the `nutch-site.xml` file and plugin directories.
Is there a graphical interface for monitoring crawls?
Nutch provides command‑line tools; visual monitoring typically requires integration with external systems like Solr or custom dashboards.
Project at a glance
Active- Stars
- 3,114
- Watchers
- 3,114
- Forks
- 1,261
LicenseApache-2.0
Repo age16 years old
Last commit14 hours ago
Primary languageJava
Last synced 13 hours ago