Comments on: Getting Back to (Search) Basics

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 21 Jan 2006 11:15:00 +0000

Many comments and URGES to make this needed small addition to spotlight have to be made to APPLE.
This can be done via Safari Menu where it says “Report an error to Apple”; It is an error! This quote hint is of some use, my Provider is called 1&1, and if I enter that in Spotlight it finds over 10500 items. If I enter “1&1, I get 12 items, which is a lot better. I have helped myself with Utility FileBuddy, it searches fast, about 3 seconds for 80 GB on a 800 MHz-Mac (wheras some FindFile Programs take 18 Seconds). So mention it to Apple!!

By: systemsboy

systemsboy — Thu, 22 Dec 2005 18:47:00 +0000

Yeah, that’s great. Except that it doesn’t work. It is by no means a name-only search. It is (as the poster said) name/keyword. Try it. You’ll get LOTS of results that don’t contain your term in the name. If this works for you, great. It doesn’t for me.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 22 Dec 2005 15:39:00 +0000

I was about to try this when half way down the page I saw this tidbit….

FYI, you can do a name/keyword only search by putting your search string in double-quotes (actually only the front double-quote is needed). This isn’t exactly name-only, but it’s pretty close.

… That solves the whole problem soooooo easily!!! You need to put that at the top of the page! I can’t believe I’ve been suffering with spotlight for so long when all I needed was a little quote mark.

By: systemsboy

systemsboy — Sat, 10 Dec 2005 22:29:00 +0000

Someone a long time ago wrote:

"p.s. however, pasting the shell into a plaint text file, saving and chmodding it doesnt work (cannot open binary file...). what could be the problem? the encoding? i will try to enter the commands directly into the terminal..."

I've discovered the source, and the cure for this problem. The problem is the browser. Copying the script from Firefox (which I now use) will put non-UNIX line breaks throughout the text file. The solution is this:
1) Copy the script text.
2) Paste it into a Rich Text document in TextEdit.
3) Then hit "Format->Make Plain Text" (command-shift-t).
4) Then save the file out and set the permissions.

Converting the text this way (in TextEdit) converts the line breaks to something usable by the shell.

Mystery solved. (Whew!)

-systemsboy

By: Ryan Schmidt

Ryan Schmidt — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 19:43:00 +0000

What I like best is that the script calls me Tiger.

Spotlight has made my PowerBook (G4 1.5GHz, 80-GB 5400-RPM HD) miserable since installing 10.4.0 so it's been entirely off, and I'm elated to get filename-based finding working again. Thanks also for the imaginative tip with the disk image for Mail. I'll definitely try that.

By: systemsboy

systemsboy — Sun, 11 Sep 2005 16:48:00 +0000

Bruce,

It's strange that the script is not behaving correctly for you. The script, as you know, simply runs mdutil -- the same command you ran -- on all drives and partitions listed in /Volumes. The extra "/" is just a precautionary measure to make sure the command runs on the root (system) partition as the system partition was not linked in older versions of OSX the way it is Tiger. It's probably not necessary, but by the same token, should not cause any problems. Definitely somthing strange going on.

I agree, though, that the script could be a bit more user-friendly. I was even planning on posting one that disables Spotlight on a per-drive basis, but I just haven't had time. It's pretty easy, though, as you discovered. To enable, just type:
sudo mdutil -i on /Drag/Your/Drive

To disable:
sudo mdutil -i off /Drag/Your/Drive

Hopefully, by the time I get around to posting a smarter script, Apple will have fixed Spotlight and made my script unnecessary. If not, perhaps I'll write a new, better disable/enable Spotlight script.

Thanks,
systemsboy

By: Bruce Young

Bruce Young — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 23:34:00 +0000

Confirming: even though my 3 other partition volumes did not get indexing re-enabled with the script (while boot vol did), using the manual mdutil command did get the indexing find-by-content re-enabled.

Thus: "sudo mdutil -i on /Volumes/D-Data" does get indexed find-by-content activated.
(again, tested by creation of small text text file with unique nonsense word)

The only difference with your command is mine does not have an extra "/" in it...
Tested with the extra "/" removed, and this re-enabled indexing on three vols (which is an improvement on first results), but got the "Could not set indexing..." on the fourth volume. Something strange here. Oh well, at least the command line mdutil -i on gets it all back.

By: Bruce Young

Bruce Young — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 23:17:00 +0000

Oops, I mean, it only re-enabled on my boot volume. the other three returned a message: “Could not set indexing status for volume.”
I verified this with a new test text file containing a unique nonsense word, which was found on my boot volume, but not on the other vols.

By: Bruce Young

Bruce Young — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 23:15:00 +0000

Follow up on the disable, re-enable on my main HD.
It re-enabled indexing for two of my partition/volumes, which are bootable & journaled. But did not re-enable for the two non-journaled data-only partition/volumes.

So perhaps I have to enable journaling on the data partition/volumes to get the indexing back?

or perhaps I should use the mdutil command directly on them?

By: Bruce Young

Bruce Young — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 23:04:00 +0000

I would add the phrases: "This applies to ALL MOUNTED VOLUMES!" and "Control-C cancels the operation."

I have modified a copy of the script to just apply to my external FireWire connected HDs, since I have a unique prefix for those volume names; ie: "/Volumes/WD160*"

Seems to work during command execution.
... checking on a test "name" search on the external HD ... ... Yes, file name found!

Yay!
FINALLY I can search on my external HD without having to have the Gigabytes indexed.

P.S., the chmod I applied to first script seems to be carried over to the copy I made for my external HD, even after I modified it.

THank you. B.Y.