search using mdfind ?

Scripting Forums AppleScript | Mac OS X
#1

Hi
Iv’e been trying to get a faster search of a external fire wire drive, tried using system events, and now want to try mdfind, iv’e never used it before so i’m learning how to implement it properly.

The code below works well on a local drive using the “mdfind -onlyin” command, but it does not work as expected on an external fire wire drive, no result returned. If how ever I remove the “-onlyin” command the code works as expected, but obviously the search takes longer because it is searching every where.

I have re-indexed the external drive and still no joy unless I remove the “-onlyin” command, am I missing something important?

set Filename to "98543-TEST"
set Fileext to "ps"
set GOgETiT to "mdfind -onlyin /RIP FILES/ 'kMDItemDisplayName == " & quote & Filename & "*" & quote & "wc" & " && (kMDItemFSName == " & quote & "*." & Fileext & quote & ")'"
do shell script GOgETiT
#2

Hi,

have you considered that local external drives are usually located in /Volumes
and RIP FILES must be escaped or quoted because of the containing space characters


set GOgETiT to "mdfind -onlyin '/Volumes/RIP FILES/' 'kMDItemDisplayName == " & quote & Filename & "*" & quote & "wc" & " && (kMDItemFSName == " & quote & "*." & Fileext & quote & ")'"
#3

Although I wrote it several years ago, I suspect that my tutorial on using spotlight (mdfind & mdls) in your AppleScripts is still relevant.

#4

gidday Stefan

no, not at all, i’m running reasonably blind as I fumble my way through learning how to use mdfind, your suggestion worked perfectly, the speed difference is huge from 30 seconds approx to 6 seconds approx, the search has to troll through 20.000 plus post script files

thanks for your help

#5

Hi Adam

yes it is, ive been reading it, a lot to absorb, I dont think ill look back now as this is such a fast way to search

cheers

#6

here is a quick lesson
¢ in a shell script paths must be ALWAYS escaped or quoted if they contain space characters, because spaces are regarded as parameter delimiter
¢ POSIX paths of external volumes start ALWAYS with /Volumes unless you specified the mounting points somewhere else (which is very very rare)

#7

thanks Stefan, appreciated