mdfind(1) BSD General Commands Manual mdfind(1)
NAME
mdfind -- finds files matching a given query
SYNOPSIS
mdfind [-live] [-count] [-onlyin directory] [-name fileName] query
DESCRIPTION
The mdfind command consults the central metadata store and returns a list
of files that match the given metadata query. The query can be a string
or a query expression.
The following options are available:
-0 Prints an ASCII NUL character after each result path. This
is useful when used in conjunction with xargs -0.
-live Causes the mdfind command to provide live-updates to the num-
ber of files matching the query. When an update causes the
query results to change the number of matches is updated.
The find can be cancelled by typing ctrl-C.
-count Causes the mdfind command to output the total number of
matches, instead of the path to the matching items.
-onlyin dir
Limit the scope of the search to the directory specified.
-name fileName
Searches for matching file names only.
-literal Force the provided query string to be taken as a literal
query string, without interpretation.
-interpret Force the provided query string to be interpreted as if the
user had typed the string into the Spotlight menu. For exam-
ple, the string "search" would produce the following query
string:
(* = search* cdw || kMDItemTextContent = search* cdw)
EXAMPLES
The following examples are shown as given to the shell.
This returns all files with any metadata attribute value matching the
string "image":
mdfind image
This returns all files that contain "MyFavoriteAuthor" in the kMDItemAu-
thor metadata attribute:
mdfind "kMDItemAuthor == '*MyFavoriteAuthor*'"
This returns all files with any metadata attribute value matching the
string "skateboard". The find continues to run after gathering the ini-
tial results, providing a count of the number of files that match the
query.
mdfind -live skateboard
To get a list of the available attributes for use in constructing
queries, see mdimport(1), particularly the -X switch.
SEE ALSO
mdimport(1), mdls(1), mdutil(1), xargs(1)
Mac OS X June 10, 2004 Mac OS X
Mac OS X 10.6 - Generated Thu Sep 17 20:08:06 CDT 2009