mdfind

node-mdfind

Node module for searching OSX Spotlight, using the built-in mdfind shell command.

Installation

npm install mdfind

Example

var mdfind = require('mdfind')
 
var res = mdfind({query:'kind:contact', attributes: ['kMDItemDisplayName', 'kMDItemEmailAddresses'], limit: 2})
res.output.on('data', console.log)
res.output.on('end', function () {console.log('**done**')})
 
/*
{ kMDItemPath: '/Users/myuser/Library/Application Support/AddressBook/Sources/some_guid/Metadata/some_guid1:ABPerson.abcdp',
  kMDItemDisplayName: 'Steve Jobs'
  kMDItemEmailAddresses: [ '[e-mail]' ] }
{ kMDItemPath: '/Users/myuser/Library/Application Support/AddressBook/Sources/some_guid/Metadata/some_guid2:ABPerson.abcdp',
  kMDItemDisplayName: 'Bill Gates',
  kMDItemEmailAddresses: [ '[e-mail]' ] }
**done**
*/

Docs

mdfind is a single function which accepts a single options argument, which can include the following options. These are parallels of the arguments to the mdfind command, so check run man mdfind to see more details.

• query: String
  • This can use operators, wildcards, kind specifiers, and more. See man mdfind
• attributes: [String]
  • Array of attributes that should be collected for each match. Note that kMDItemPath is exported for every file and does not need to be manually specified.
• limit: Integer
  • Maximum number of results to return
• directories: [String]
  • Array of directory paths to limit the search to
• names: [String]
  • Array of filenames (without paths) to limit the search to
• interpret: Boolean
  • Force the provided query string to be interpreted as if the user had typed the string into the Spotlight menu. For example, the query string search would produce the following query string: (* = search* cdw || kMDItemTextContent = search* cdw)

Note that the live option, while supported by the shell command, is not currently supported.

The mdfind function returns object with two keys:

• output this is a Stream that outputs objects. Each file found will be passed to the data handler as an object with keys for all specified attributes.
• terminate is a function which can be called to stop the search at any time.