[very basic] how to aim sphinx at specific data

This will be horribly noob stuff, but I'm finding the overview or
`about' at http://www.sphinxsearch.com/about.html
Does not explain much that I understand.  I see the phrase `full text
search' but then it talks about connecting to sql data bases.

Its not clear if this search engine can be made to search regular
data.  Although it does mention html as an acceptable data format..
and something about html_strip somewhere deep in the manual.

I don't see any mention of how the indexer is aimed at a set of
data.. like maybe a web site or whatever.

I've strayed into the actual manual above but since I have... I hoped
that the `Quich sphinx leaning tour' would clarify how one controls
the indexer... but I don't see it if its there.

example from http://www.sphinxsearch.com/docs/current.html#quick-tour:

  Run the indexer to create full-text index from your data:

  $ cd /usr/local/sphinx/etc
  $ /usr/local/sphinx/bin/indexer

What is the indexer indexing... ... Is it all controlled from the conf
file?

The example conf doesn't appear to have much to say about it:

Unless this is it:

  index test1
{
	source					= src1
	path					= /var/lib/data/test1
	docinfo					= extern
	charset_type			= sbcs
}
And user is expected to change /var/lib/data/test1 to point to
something else?

I'm sure this all sounds really stupid but none of The About, Features
or cursory examination of the manual, make it clear what this critter
does at a basic level.

Can it be made to index and provide detailed search capability of a
set of web pages?


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