Enabling Spotlight to index excluded directories

Enabling Spotlight to index excluded directories

28/11/2005 - 19:49 (Category: Mac Os X)

By default Spotlight does not index several directories (meaning that you will not be able to see files that you know they *actually do exist* in Spotlight search results). For example, /System, /Library or /etc are excluded from indexing. Anyway, you can configure Spotlight to index excluded directories:

1) open Terminal (Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal.app)
2) type su (at the prompt enter the root password)
3) type cd /.Spotlight-V100
4) type pico _rules.plist

you will see something like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" 
 "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd"> 
<plist version="1.0"> 
<dict> 
        <key>EXCLUDE</key> 
        <array/> 
        <key>INCLUDE</key> 
        <array/> 
        <key>NOTE</key> 
        <string>Specify paths to include or exclude, preceeding 
         rules which target user-homes with ~/</string> 
</dict> 
</plist>

here you can add excluded directories within the 'key' and '/key' tags. For example, if you want to add the /System directory, you must add the following line:

<string>/System</string>

in the _rules.plist file. So you should get something like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" 
 "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd"> 
<plist version="1.0"> 
<dict> 
        <key>EXCLUDE</key> 
        <array/> 
        <key>INCLUDE</key> 
        <array>
        <string>/System</string>
        </array> 
        <key>NOTE</key> 
        <string>Specify paths to include or exclude, preceeding 
         rules which target user-homes with ~/</string> 
</dict> 
</plist>

notice the <array> and </array> tags (before and after the new added line). After adding the directories to make them indexable, save the _rules.plist file by pressing Ctrl-O, then Enter and finally Ctrl-X to exit the file. To perform the whole job you must be root (take a look at a previous tip in the past tips archive to enable the root user)

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