Name
Searching for and Locating Files
Synopsis
- Find a file when I don’t know its name?
Finder → enter a keyword in the Search field in the toolbar → hit Return to start the search
Finder → File → Find (
-F)
- Index my hard drive to allow for content-based searching?
Finder → Computer → Macintosh HD → File → Get Info → click on the disclosure triangle next to “Content index” → click on the “Index Now” button.
Note
The Finder does not index filenames—only the contents of files. However, you can still search for filenames.
- Find a file when I can’t remember where I saved it?
Use the locate command in the Terminal. However, you must first update the
locate
database as follows:[macchuck:~] chuck%
cd /usr/libexec
[macchuck:/usr/libexec] chuck%sudo ./locate.updatedb
If you haven’t built the
locate
database yet, this command could take a few minutes to run; afterwards, you will be returned to the command line.Note
The
locate.updatedb
command is executed weekly by default, as noted in the/etc/weekly
file. However, you might want to issue this command shortly after installing Mac OS X.Now you can use the
locate
command; for example:[macchuck:/usr/libexec] chuck%
locate temp98.doc
/Users/chuck/Books/Templates/temp98.doc [macchuck:/usr/libexec] chuck%In this example, we used
locate
to search for the filetemp98.doc
; in return, the command tells us where the file is located.Note
Indexing your hard drive ...
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