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Spotlight anomaly

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  Spotlight anomaly John Somerset <somerset@nospam.com> - 2016-01-14 23:25 -0500
    Re: Spotlight anomaly Alan Browne <alan.browne@freelunchvideotron.ca> - 2016-01-15 08:54 -0500
      Re: Spotlight anomaly John Somerset <somerset@nospam.com> - 2016-01-15 12:49 -0500
        Re: Spotlight anomaly John Somerset <somerset@nospam.com> - 2016-01-15 14:50 -0500
          Re: Spotlight anomaly Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> - 2016-01-15 20:00 +0000
        Re: Spotlight anomaly Alan Browne <alan.browne@freelunchvideotron.ca> - 2016-01-16 19:18 -0500
      Re: Spotlight anomaly super70s <super70s@super70s.invalid> - 2016-01-15 20:20 -0600
        Re: Spotlight anomaly JF Mezei <jfmezei.spamnot@vaxination.ca> - 2016-01-15 22:40 -0500
          Re: Spotlight anomaly Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> - 2016-01-16 04:22 +0000
        Re: Spotlight anomaly Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> - 2016-01-16 04:29 +0000
          Re: Spotlight anomaly isw <isw@witzend.com> - 2016-01-16 09:50 -0800
            Re: Spotlight anomaly Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> - 2016-01-16 18:20 +0000
              Re: Spotlight anomaly Lewis <g.kreme@gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> - 2016-01-17 02:45 +0000
                Re: Spotlight anomaly Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> - 2016-01-17 04:30 +0000
                  Re: Spotlight anomaly Lewis <g.kreme@gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> - 2016-01-17 07:13 +0000
                    Re: Spotlight anomaly Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> - 2016-01-17 20:46 +0000
                      Re: Spotlight anomaly Lewis <g.kreme@gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> - 2016-01-18 01:39 +0000
                        Re: Spotlight anomaly Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> - 2016-01-18 04:17 +0000
                          Re: Spotlight anomaly Lewis <g.kreme@gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> - 2016-01-18 10:35 +0000
                            Re: Spotlight anomaly Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> - 2016-01-18 16:05 +0000
                Re: Spotlight anomaly isw <isw@witzend.com> - 2016-01-16 21:02 -0800
                  Re: Spotlight anomaly Lewis <g.kreme@gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> - 2016-01-17 07:16 +0000
        Re: Spotlight anomaly Alan Browne <alan.browne@freelunchvideotron.ca> - 2016-01-16 19:16 -0500
          Re: Spotlight anomaly Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> - 2016-01-17 00:20 +0000
            Re: Spotlight anomaly dorayme <do_ray_me@bigpond.com> - 2016-01-17 12:59 +1100
          Re: Spotlight anomaly Elden Fenison <usenet@moondog.org> - 2016-01-31 23:10 -0600
            Re: Spotlight anomaly Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> - 2016-02-01 18:06 +0000
        Re: Spotlight anomaly John Albert <j.albert@snet.net> - 2016-01-17 11:55 -0500
          Re: Spotlight anomaly Davoud <star@sky.net> - 2016-01-17 12:26 -0500
          Re: Spotlight anomaly Lewis <g.kreme@gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> - 2016-01-17 18:07 +0000
          Re: Spotlight anomaly isw <isw@witzend.com> - 2016-01-17 10:20 -0800
          Re: Spotlight anomaly super70s <super70s@super70s.invalid> - 2016-01-17 23:43 -0600
            Re: Spotlight anomaly Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> - 2016-01-18 06:11 +0000
              Re: Spotlight anomaly super70s <super70s@super70s.invalid> - 2016-01-18 14:14 -0600
                Re: Spotlight anomaly Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> - 2016-01-18 20:50 +0000
                Re: Spotlight anomaly Lewis <g.kreme@gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> - 2016-01-19 04:22 +0000
            Re: Spotlight anomaly Lewis <g.kreme@gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> - 2016-01-18 10:36 +0000
              Re: Spotlight anomaly super70s <super70s@super70s.invalid> - 2016-01-18 13:52 -0600
                Re: Spotlight anomaly Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> - 2016-01-18 20:48 +0000

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#87153 — Spotlight anomaly

I rebuilt the Spotlight index.  When it finished, I typed a name that 
appears several times in a recent text document.  Spotlight listed older 
text and pdf documents containing that name, but not the one I had in 
mind. When I duplicated the document, the Spotlight results listed the 
duplicate but not the original.

Why would Spotlight miss the original?

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#87159

On 2016-01-14 23:25, John Somerset wrote:
> I rebuilt the Spotlight index.  When it finished, I typed a name that
> appears several times in a recent text document.  Spotlight listed older
> text and pdf documents containing that name, but not the one I had in
> mind. When I duplicated the document, the Spotlight results listed the
> duplicate but not the original.
>
> Why would Spotlight miss the original?

Spotlight has some sort of weighting algorithm that supposedly learns 
over time what is of most interest to you and presents results 
accordingly.  After a rebuild those weights are either reset (needs to 
relearn) or they're not (possibly resulting in confused results).

In your case perhaps it put a lot of weight on the most recent version.

I've found it to be good a lot of the time, but sometimes it persists on 
putting up some obscure stuff.  If I make the mistake of selecting some 
obscure return then it just reinforces it.

-- 
"But I am somehow extraordinarily lucky, for a guy with shitty luck."
               ..Harrison Ford, Rolling Stone - 2015-12-02

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#87164

On 1/15/16 8:54 AM, Alan Browne wrote:
> On 2016-01-14 23:25, John Somerset wrote:
>> I rebuilt the Spotlight index.  When it finished, I typed a name that
>> appears several times in a recent text document.  Spotlight listed older
>> text and pdf documents containing that name, but not the one I had in
>> mind. When I duplicated the document, the Spotlight results listed the
>> duplicate but not the original.
>>
>> Why would Spotlight miss the original?
>
> Spotlight has some sort of weighting algorithm that supposedly learns
> over time what is of most interest to you and presents results
> accordingly.  After a rebuild those weights are either reset (needs to
> relearn) or they're not (possibly resulting in confused results).
>
> In your case perhaps it put a lot of weight on the most recent version.
>
> I've found it to be good a lot of the time, but sometimes it persists on
> putting up some obscure stuff.  If I make the mistake of selecting some
> obscure return then it just reinforces it.
>
I'm glad to have obscure stuff listed. In this case, the recent document 
didn't appear at all.

It was an odt document from Open Office. When I duplicated it, Spotlight 
showed the duplicate. I opened the original, hit Update, hit Save, and 
closed it.  Then Spotlight showed it.

Hmmm... Spotlight will now allow searching before indexing is finished. 
I tried it. Maybe the recent document didn't show because it hadn't been 
indexed yet.  Maybe there's a bug in Spotlight, and my jumping the gun 
kept it from being found even after indexing finished. In that case, 
maybe there are other documents that won't show.  Should I index again?

For some time, I've been experiencing delays. Lately, there has been 
less free memory, but I didn't see a hog in Activity Monitor. Yesterday, 
when I booted and logged on, as it sat idling, there were hundreds of 
pageouts and then a swap file.

Onyx rebuilt my dyld's shared cache, my XPC cache, and my CoreDuet 
database.  What an improvement!

Still, when I booted and logged on, Spotlight daemons were reading 
hundreds of MB over a period of several minutes, as they have done for 
months. That's why I rebuilt the index.  It seems to have helped.

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#87168

On 1/15/16 12:49 PM, John Somerset wrote:
> Should I index again?

I did. This time, I left Spotlight alone until disk activity stopped and 
CPU dropped to 2% or so.  It took about 30 minutes.  Last time, it took 
about 50 minutes, so I guess I interfered with indexing.

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#87170

On 2016-01-15, John Somerset <somerset@nospam.com> wrote:
> On 1/15/16 12:49 PM, John Somerset wrote:
>> Should I index again?
>
> I did. This time, I left Spotlight alone until disk activity stopped and 
> CPU dropped to 2% or so.  It took about 30 minutes.  Last time, it took 
> about 50 minutes, so I guess I interfered with indexing.

Makes sense. It's done in the background.

-- 
E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my ravenous SPAM filter.
I often ignore posts from Google. Use a real news client instead.

JR

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#87196

On 2016-01-15 12:49, John Somerset wrote:

>
> Onyx rebuilt my dyld's shared cache, my XPC cache, and my CoreDuet
> database.  What an improvement!

I haven't used Onyx in years - not since Leopard or SL.

>
> Still, when I booted and logged on, Spotlight daemons were reading
> hundreds of MB over a period of several minutes, as they have done for
> months. That's why I rebuilt the index.  It seems to have helped.

Probably.

-- 
"But I am somehow extraordinarily lucky, for a guy with shitty luck."
               ..Harrison Ford, Rolling Stone - 2015-12-02

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#87178

Spotlight is one of the most obnoxious features Apple ever came out with 
as far as I'm concerned. I use Spotless (probably isn't even available 
on the recent systems) to get rid of it -- both in the menu bar and in 
the background -- and EasyFind if I need to find something.

Who cares about "learning" what you search for the most -- is it worth 
the HD being commandeered all the time without your 
knowledge/permission? Not to me.

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#87179

On 2016-01-15 21:20, super70s wrote:
> Spotlight is one of the most obnoxious features Apple ever came out with 
> as far as I'm concerned


It was OK in Snow Leopard. I avoid it in Yosemite. Use the finder window
search function to find the files I am looking for.

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#87180

JF Mezei <jfmezei.spamnot@vaxination.ca> wrote:
> On 2016-01-15 21:20, super70s wrote:
>> Spotlight is one of the most obnoxious features Apple ever came out with 
>> as far as I'm concerned
> 
> It was OK in Snow Leopard. I avoid it in Yosemite. Use the finder window
> search function to find the files I am looking for.

The Finder uses Spotlight, as do many other applications, Apple and
third-party.

-- 
E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my ravenous SPAM filter.
I often ignore posts from Google. Use a real news client instead.

JR 

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#87181

super70s <super70s@super70s.invalid> wrote:
> Spotlight is one of the most obnoxious features Apple ever came out with 
> as far as I'm concerned. 

Not me. I find Spotlight quite useful. And I'm not alone. It's a good thing
Apple doesn't design operating systems just fit little, old you. : )

> I use Spotless (probably isn't even available 
> on the recent systems) to get rid of it -- both in the menu bar and in 
> the background -- and EasyFind if I need to find something.

EasyFind is nowhere near as fast since it must scan files at the time of
search - especially when searching for content inside of files. 

And disabling Spotlight entirely will break search functionality in many
Apple and third-party applications. No thanks.

> Who cares about "learning" what you search for the most 

I do, particularly when It means I don't have to type as much to find what
I want. Spotlight saves me time in that respect - something I appreciate.

> -- is it worth 
> the HD being commandeered all the time without your 
> knowledge/permission? Not to me.

That simply hasn't been a problem for many of us. You'd like us to ignore
that, I suppose. Sorry - not happening.

-- 
E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my ravenous SPAM filter.
I often ignore posts from Google. Use a real news client instead.

JR 

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#87183

In article <dftv8cFp1lkU1@mid.individual.net>,
 Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> wrote:

> super70s <super70s@super70s.invalid> wrote:
> > Spotlight is one of the most obnoxious features Apple ever came out with 
> > as far as I'm concerned. 
> 
> Not me. I find Spotlight quite useful. And I'm not alone. It's a good thing
> Apple doesn't design operating systems just fit little, old you. : )
> 
> > I use Spotless (probably isn't even available 
> > on the recent systems) to get rid of it -- both in the menu bar and in 
> > the background -- and EasyFind if I need to find something.
> 
> EasyFind is nowhere near as fast since it must scan files at the time of
> search - especially when searching for content inside of files.

Yes, it is slow (as would be any search that hadn't done a lot of prior 
Spotlight-style indexing), but it has the wonderful advantage of 
searching *everything, everywhere*, as near as I can tell.

I sure wish Spotlight had an option for doing that.

Isaac

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#87185

isw <isw@witzend.com> wrote:
> In article <dftv8cFp1lkU1@mid.individual.net>,
>  Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> wrote:
> 
>> super70s <super70s@super70s.invalid> wrote:
>>> Spotlight is one of the most obnoxious features Apple ever came out with 
>>> as far as I'm concerned. 
>> 
>> Not me. I find Spotlight quite useful. And I'm not alone. It's a good thing
>> Apple doesn't design operating systems just fit little, old you. : )
>> 
>>> I use Spotless (probably isn't even available 
>>> on the recent systems) to get rid of it -- both in the menu bar and in 
>>> the background -- and EasyFind if I need to find something.
>> 
>> EasyFind is nowhere near as fast since it must scan files at the time of
>> search - especially when searching for content inside of files.
> 
> Yes, it is slow (as would be any search that hadn't done a lot of prior 
> Spotlight-style indexing), but it has the wonderful advantage of 
> searching *everything, everywhere*, as near as I can tell.
> 
> I sure wish Spotlight had an option for doing that.

Spotlight is designed primarily for casual searches of high-level
documents. Most folks aren't interested in having various system logs,
cache files, internals, and so on appear in casual Spotlight search
results, which is why system files are excluded. 

When I want to search for things like that, I just use another tool to do
it, whether it be a command-line search utility, the Console application,
or something like EasyFind.  

Use the right tool for the job.

-- 
E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my ravenous SPAM filter.
I often ignore posts from Google. Use a real news client instead.

JR 

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#87201

In message <dfvg07F6d5vU1@mid.individual.net> 
  Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> wrote:
> isw <isw@witzend.com> wrote:
>> In article <dftv8cFp1lkU1@mid.individual.net>,
>>  Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> wrote:
>> 
>>> super70s <super70s@super70s.invalid> wrote:
>>>> Spotlight is one of the most obnoxious features Apple ever came out with 
>>>> as far as I'm concerned. 
>>> 
>>> Not me. I find Spotlight quite useful. And I'm not alone. It's a good thing
>>> Apple doesn't design operating systems just fit little, old you. : )
>>> 
>>>> I use Spotless (probably isn't even available 
>>>> on the recent systems) to get rid of it -- both in the menu bar and in 
>>>> the background -- and EasyFind if I need to find something.
>>> 
>>> EasyFind is nowhere near as fast since it must scan files at the time of
>>> search - especially when searching for content inside of files.
>> 
>> Yes, it is slow (as would be any search that hadn't done a lot of prior 
>> Spotlight-style indexing), but it has the wonderful advantage of 
>> searching *everything, everywhere*, as near as I can tell.
>> 
>> I sure wish Spotlight had an option for doing that.

> Spotlight is designed primarily for casual searches of high-level
> documents. Most folks aren't interested in having various system logs,
> cache files, internals, and so on appear in casual Spotlight search
> results, which is why system files are excluded. 

But you can easily include them if you want.

<https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202121>

-- 
On 20-12-2013 Wes Groleau wrote:
>On 12-20-2013, 10:04, George Kerby wrote:
>> 'Tis the Season to bitch and moan.
 
> That doesn't fit the tune you @#$%#$&%$*#$@%T#^% !

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#87204

Lewis <g.kreme@gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> wrote:
> In message <dfvg07F6d5vU1@mid.individual.net> 
>   Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> wrote:
>> isw <isw@witzend.com> wrote:
>>> In article <dftv8cFp1lkU1@mid.individual.net>,
>>> Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> super70s <super70s@super70s.invalid> wrote:
>>>>> Spotlight is one of the most obnoxious features Apple ever came out with 
>>>>> as far as I'm concerned. 
>>>> 
>>>> Not me. I find Spotlight quite useful. And I'm not alone. It's a good thing
>>>> Apple doesn't design operating systems just fit little, old you. : )
>>>> 
>>>>> I use Spotless (probably isn't even available 
>>>>> on the recent systems) to get rid of it -- both in the menu bar and in 
>>>>> the background -- and EasyFind if I need to find something.
>>>> 
>>>> EasyFind is nowhere near as fast since it must scan files at the time of
>>>> search - especially when searching for content inside of files.
>>> 
>>> Yes, it is slow (as would be any search that hadn't done a lot of prior 
>>> Spotlight-style indexing), but it has the wonderful advantage of 
>>> searching *everything, everywhere*, as near as I can tell.
>>> 
>>> I sure wish Spotlight had an option for doing that.
> 
>> Spotlight is designed primarily for casual searches of high-level
>> documents. Most folks aren't interested in having various system logs,
>> cache files, internals, and so on appear in casual Spotlight search
>> results, which is why system files are excluded. 
> 
> But you can easily include them if you want.
> 
> <https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202121>

I don't think that includes all of them - just a subset.

-- 
E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my ravenous SPAM filter.
I often ignore posts from Google. Use a real news client instead.

JR 

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#87210

In message <dg0jmcFerf8U1@mid.individual.net> 
  Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> wrote:
> Lewis <g.kreme@gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> wrote:
>> In message <dfvg07F6d5vU1@mid.individual.net> 
>>   Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> wrote:
>>> isw <isw@witzend.com> wrote:
>>>> In article <dftv8cFp1lkU1@mid.individual.net>,
>>>> Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>> super70s <super70s@super70s.invalid> wrote:
>>>>>> Spotlight is one of the most obnoxious features Apple ever came out with 
>>>>>> as far as I'm concerned. 
>>>>> 
>>>>> Not me. I find Spotlight quite useful. And I'm not alone. It's a good thing
>>>>> Apple doesn't design operating systems just fit little, old you. : )
>>>>> 
>>>>>> I use Spotless (probably isn't even available 
>>>>>> on the recent systems) to get rid of it -- both in the menu bar and in 
>>>>>> the background -- and EasyFind if I need to find something.
>>>>> 
>>>>> EasyFind is nowhere near as fast since it must scan files at the time of
>>>>> search - especially when searching for content inside of files.
>>>> 
>>>> Yes, it is slow (as would be any search that hadn't done a lot of prior 
>>>> Spotlight-style indexing), but it has the wonderful advantage of 
>>>> searching *everything, everywhere*, as near as I can tell.
>>>> 
>>>> I sure wish Spotlight had an option for doing that.
>> 
>>> Spotlight is designed primarily for casual searches of high-level
>>> documents. Most folks aren't interested in having various system logs,
>>> cache files, internals, and so on appear in casual Spotlight search
>>> results, which is why system files are excluded. 
>> 
>> But you can easily include them if you want.
>> 
>> <https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202121>

> I don't think that includes all of them - just a subset.

It includes all the ones you have permissions for.


-- 
The PSP could have voice recognition too, so when you go
"nyuuurrrrrrrr-uuuuuurrrrrrrrrrr-uuuuuuurrrrrrrrr" you go faster, an
when you go "Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii" you stop

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#87232

On 2016-01-17, Lewis <g.kreme@gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> wrote:
> In message <dg0jmcFerf8U1@mid.individual.net> 
>   Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> wrote:
>> Lewis <g.kreme@gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> wrote:
>>> In message <dfvg07F6d5vU1@mid.individual.net> 
>>>   Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> Spotlight is designed primarily for casual searches of high-level
>>>> documents. Most folks aren't interested in having various system logs,
>>>> cache files, internals, and so on appear in casual Spotlight search
>>>> results, which is why system files are excluded. 
>>> 
>>> But you can easily include them if you want.
>>> 
>>> <https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202121>
>
>> I don't think that includes all of them - just a subset.
>
> It includes all the ones you have permissions for.

Certainly not all files on the system. In fact I would be (pleasantly)
surprised if it included anything outside of /System. But I know for a
fact it excludes many things outside of /System.

-- 
E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my ravenous SPAM filter.
I often ignore posts from Google. Use a real news client instead.

JR

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#87241

In message <dg2ctlFshp5U2@mid.individual.net> 
  Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> wrote:
> On 2016-01-17, Lewis <g.kreme@gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> wrote:
>> In message <dg0jmcFerf8U1@mid.individual.net> 
>>   Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> wrote:
>>> Lewis <g.kreme@gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> wrote:
>>>> In message <dfvg07F6d5vU1@mid.individual.net> 
>>>>   Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>> Spotlight is designed primarily for casual searches of high-level
>>>>> documents. Most folks aren't interested in having various system logs,
>>>>> cache files, internals, and so on appear in casual Spotlight search
>>>>> results, which is why system files are excluded. 
>>>> 
>>>> But you can easily include them if you want.
>>>> 
>>>> <https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202121>
>>
>>> I don't think that includes all of them - just a subset.
>>
>> It includes all the ones you have permissions for.

> Certainly not all files on the system. In fact I would be (pleasantly)
> surprised if it included anything outside of /System

It does. It will find files in /Library and ~/Library as well as
/System.

Searching for Autoupdate and including system files finds, for example,

/Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/com.microsoft.autoupdate.helpertool
/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.microsoft.autoupdate.helpertool.plist 
/Library/Frameworks/Mono.framework/Versions/4.0.0/share/autoconf/autoconf/autoupdate.m4 

(among others)

Searching for "authorization.plist" finds

/System/Library/Security/authorization.plist 

> But I know for a fact it excludes many things outside of /System.

Like? I haven't noticed any files missing, though I assume it does not
search cache folders, anything specifically excluded in the Spotlight
configuration, and maybe anything in /tmp.


-- 
"...Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving
safely in one pretty and well-preserved piece, but to slide across the
finish line broadside, thoroughly used up, worn out, leaking oil, and
shouting GERONIMO!!!" -- Bill McKenna

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#87242

Lewis <g.kreme@gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> wrote:
> In message <dg2ctlFshp5U2@mid.individual.net> 
>   Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> wrote:
>> On 2016-01-17, Lewis <g.kreme@gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> wrote:
>>> In message <dg0jmcFerf8U1@mid.individual.net> 
>>> Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> wrote:
>>>> Lewis <g.kreme@gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> wrote:
>>>>> In message <dfvg07F6d5vU1@mid.individual.net> 
>>>>> Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>>> Spotlight is designed primarily for casual searches of high-level
>>>>>> documents. Most folks aren't interested in having various system logs,
>>>>>> cache files, internals, and so on appear in casual Spotlight search
>>>>>> results, which is why system files are excluded. 
>>>>> 
>>>>> But you can easily include them if you want.
>>>>> 
>>>>> <https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202121>
>>> 
>>>> I don't think that includes all of them - just a subset.
>>> 
>>> It includes all the ones you have permissions for.
> 
>> Certainly not all files on the system. In fact I would be (pleasantly)
>> surprised if it included anything outside of /System
> 
> It does. It will find files in /Library and ~/Library as well as
> /System.

Meh. Still nowhere near what I would expect regarding all system files.

>> But I know for a fact it excludes many things outside of /System.
> 
> Like? I haven't noticed any files missing, though I assume it does not
> search cache folders, anything specifically excluded in the Spotlight
> configuration, and maybe anything in /tmp.

/var, /usr, and so on could be considered system locations. It would be
nice to have full control over what is excluded. That said, I am fine with
system files (yes, even /System) being excluded by default since it would
needlessly clutter search results otherwise. It's not an important issue
for me. Like i said, use the right tool for the job. : )

-- 
E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my ravenous SPAM filter.
I often ignore posts from Google. Use a real news client instead.

JR 

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#87248

In message <dg37a4F4lm6U1@mid.individual.net> 
  Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> wrote:
> Lewis <g.kreme@gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> wrote:
>> In message <dg2ctlFshp5U2@mid.individual.net> 
>>   Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> wrote:
>>> On 2016-01-17, Lewis <g.kreme@gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> wrote:
>>>> In message <dg0jmcFerf8U1@mid.individual.net> 
>>>> Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> wrote:
>>>>> Lewis <g.kreme@gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> wrote:
>>>>>> In message <dfvg07F6d5vU1@mid.individual.net> 
>>>>>> Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> wrote:
>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Spotlight is designed primarily for casual searches of high-level
>>>>>>> documents. Most folks aren't interested in having various system logs,
>>>>>>> cache files, internals, and so on appear in casual Spotlight search
>>>>>>> results, which is why system files are excluded. 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> But you can easily include them if you want.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> <https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202121>
>>>> 
>>>>> I don't think that includes all of them - just a subset.
>>>> 
>>>> It includes all the ones you have permissions for.
>> 
>>> Certainly not all files on the system. In fact I would be (pleasantly)
>>> surprised if it included anything outside of /System
>> 
>> It does. It will find files in /Library and ~/Library as well as
>> /System.

> Meh. Still nowhere near what I would expect regarding all system files.

>>> But I know for a fact it excludes many things outside of /System.
>> 
>> Like? I haven't noticed any files missing, though I assume it does not
>> search cache folders, anything specifically excluded in the Spotlight
>> configuration, and maybe anything in /tmp.

> /var, /usr, and so on could be considered system locations.

I can see an argument either way there, but Spotlight *will* find files
in /usr, just only through the mdfind command line tool. This seems like
a reasonable decision.

It won't search, as far as I can tell, /tmp or /var, which, again, I can
see an argument for.

> It would be nice to have full control over what is excluded.

I think you do, actually. There's a plist somewhere, IIRC. It might be
locked up behind SIP now though.

> for me. Like i said, use the right tool for the job. : )

My only problem with Spotlight is that sometimes mdfind find too much,
so I end up doing things like

mdfind foo
mdfind foo | grep -v "\/Users\/"
mdfind foo | grep -v "\/Users\/" | grep -v "\/local\/"
mdfind foo | grep -v "\/Users\/" | grep -v "\/local\/" | grep -v "ramewo"

etc etc

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#87251

Lewis <g.kreme@gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> wrote:
> In message <dg37a4F4lm6U1@mid.individual.net> 
>   Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> wrote:
> 
>> /var, /usr, and so on could be considered system locations.
> 
> I can see an argument either way there, but Spotlight *will* find files
> in /usr, just only through the mdfind command line tool. This seems like
> a reasonable decision.

I agree, since you typically aren't futzing around with those files in
Finder Windows anyway.

> It won't search, as far as I can tell, /tmp or /var, which, again, I can
> see an argument for.
> 
>> It would be nice to have full control over what is excluded.
> 
> I think you do, actually. There's a plist somewhere, IIRC. It might be
> locked up behind SIP now though.

Yeah, you may be right about that. I know there are files you can edit that
list various exceptions - one at the root of each volume IIRC. I admit I
haven't done enough research to know for sure.

>> for me. Like i said, use the right tool for the job. : )
> 
> My only problem with Spotlight is that sometimes mdfind find too much,
> so I end up doing things like
> 
> mdfind foo
> mdfind foo | grep -v "\/Users\/"
> mdfind foo | grep -v "\/Users\/" | grep -v "\/local\/"
> mdfind foo | grep -v "\/Users\/" | grep -v "\/local\/" | grep -v "ramewo"
> 
> etc etc

I'm fine with that kind of filtering with command-line searches.

-- 
E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my ravenous SPAM filter.
I often ignore posts from Google. Use a real news client instead.

JR 

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