

Spotlight integration: Metadata attributes

From: Unix for Mac OS X Users

Video: Spotlight integration: Metadata attributes

I want to look at another command related to metadata, which is Unix Files.

Spotlight integration: Metadata attributes

I want to look at another command related to metadata, which is MDLS, so we're looking at metadata listing, we can look at a file. Like our lorem ipsum file, and we can peek at the metadata for this file, so now we can see all the metadata for it, which can help us figure out what we're trying to search on and you can see that there's a lot more stuff stored in here than we normally have access to. Let's just look at another one just as contrast, ndls, we'll look at this JPG we created with screen capture. Notice here, it's got all sorts of things like the color profile name. It's got the pixel width, the pixel height, all this metadata that's in here, we can actually search on as well, so you can find images that match certain width and height parameters.

You can be really specific. And as for each one of these, we got the key over here and the value on this side. So the key is the name of the attribute that we want to look for. So let's say for example, this one. This is the metadata item file system name that we're looking for. That's the key. So let's just copy that and we're going to now construct a new query using that to search, ndfind. And I'm going to use my onlyin option again. Unix Files. And then, in single quotes, I'm going to put that equals, and what do I want it to equal? And I'll put it in double quotes so they can tell the difference and I'm going to search for lorem ipsum as a first example.

So, lorem ipsum, I've got an asterisk on either side, remember that's used as a wildcard for any characters that might be on either side of it. Then I hit Return, and it found our lorem ipsum file. Now, notice if I take the wildcard characters away, now it doesn't find it. It is looking for an exact match, right? That's what this equals equals here is telling it, that it should be an exact match. A lot of people run into problems and wonder why it's not working for them. Now you'll notice that I told you to use single quotes around the outside and the double quotes on the inside. It would've worked if we had swapped them and done them the other way around in this case.

But in some cases that's not true, especially like the ones that we're about to see where we're working with time. So let's say that we have the exact same thing we had before. But now, instead of KMD, we're going to look at item file system creation date. And we're going to say, greater than or equal to. And now we can use this special time object. time.today to start with. Single quotes. Again, single quotes are important when working with all of these times. Oops, I left a space here, that's why it didn't find anything.

Let's move that space and try again, and now it finds the Shakespeare file that I created earlier today. In addition to using this keyword today, you can also use yesterday. This underscore month or this underscore year and there's also one that's for now. Now, it's not very useful to search for things that are now but we can provide an argument to that that is a relative time to now in seconds. So minus 36,000, let's say, inside parentheses. Let me just widen my window so that's not wrapping, and you can see it a little bit better.

So now, minus 36,000 seconds, and now it shows me any files that meet that. It didn't have any; I just broaden it by adding another zero, now you can see the ones that come back. Now, searching in seconds might not be the most useful, we can also provide that same kind of option to today as well. So today. Minus two is everything in the last two days. Now we're not specifying seconds anymore. We're specifying in days. Or if we did something like this week minus one. Well now we'll see all the files that we created this week.

Same thing for this month and this year and if you do this year then the number you specify is in years. In addition to having relative time, you can also specify absolute time by using ISO. So, time.ISO. Again, this is where it's important to make sure that you're using single quotes. The double quotes won't work in this case. And then you put a time in the ISO format. So, this is what the ISO format looks like. The year, the month, the date, with dashes between it. Space. And then the time, The hour, minutes, seconds with colons.

And then the time zone offset after that. So now, it will come back and tell me all the files that were created since that time. So again, let me just say that searching by all of these attributes is the most powerful lowest level you can do. You don't have to do that. You can just simply put those simple query strings in there and have it find everything. If you really do know that you want to target something really specific though. I just want you to know that you have the ability to go in and find exactly the metadata that you want.

Show transcript

This video is part of

Image for Unix for Mac OS X Users
Unix for Mac OS X Users

82 video lessons · 25594 viewers

Kevin Skoglund

Expand all | Collapse all
  1. 3m 57s
    1. Introduction
      1m 14s
    2. Using the exercise files
      2m 43s
  2. 32m 2s
    1. What is Unix?
      7m 27s
    2. The terminal application
      4m 23s
    3. Logging in and using the command prompt
      5m 19s
    4. Command structure
      5m 22s
    5. Kernel and shells
      5m 25s
    6. Unix manual pages
      4m 6s
  3. 15m 58s
    1. The working directory
      2m 49s
    2. Listing files and directories
      3m 59s
    3. Moving around the filesystem
      4m 58s
    4. Filesystem organization
      4m 12s
  4. 1h 4m
    1. Naming files
      5m 41s
    2. Creating files
      2m 19s
    3. Unix text editors
      6m 39s
    4. Reading files
      5m 35s
    5. Reading portions of files
      3m 27s
    6. Creating directories
      2m 40s
    7. Moving and renaming files and directories
      8m 32s
    8. Copying files and directories
      3m 7s
    9. Deleting files and directories
      3m 38s
    10. Finder aliases in Unix
      4m 10s
    11. Hard links
      5m 30s
    12. Symbolic links
      6m 36s
    13. Searching for files and directories
      6m 32s
  5. 34m 58s
    1. Who am I?
      4m 3s
    2. Unix groups
      1m 52s
    3. File and directory ownership
      6m 41s
    4. File and directory permissions
      4m 27s
    5. Setting permissions using alpha notation
      6m 49s
    6. Setting permissions using octal notation
      3m 49s
    7. The root user
      1m 57s
    8. sudo and sudoers
      5m 20s
  6. 52m 34s
    1. Command basics
      4m 4s
    2. The PATH variable
      4m 13s
    3. System information commands
      3m 40s
    4. Disk information commands
      6m 8s
    5. Viewing processes
      5m 0s
    6. Monitoring processes
      3m 36s
    7. Stopping processes
      3m 19s
    8. Text file helpers
      6m 50s
    9. Utility programs
      7m 28s
    10. Using the command history
      8m 16s
  7. 20m 39s
    1. Standard input and standard output
      1m 24s
    2. Directing output to a file
      4m 13s
    3. Appending to a file
      2m 44s
    4. Directing input from a file
      5m 28s
    5. Piping output to input
      4m 40s
    6. Suppressing output
      2m 10s
  8. 41m 28s
    1. Profile, login, and resource files
      9m 11s
    2. Setting command aliases
      6m 59s
    3. Setting and exporting environment variables
      4m 54s
    4. Setting the PATH variable
      6m 10s
    5. Configuring history with variables
      6m 17s
    6. Customizing the command prompt
      6m 5s
    7. Logout file
      1m 52s
  9. 1h 25m
    1. grep: Searching for matching expressions
      5m 21s
    2. grep: Multiple files, other input
      4m 28s
    3. grep: Coloring matched text
      2m 57s
    4. Introduction to regular expressions
      3m 22s
    5. Regular expressions: Basic syntax
      3m 19s
    6. Using regular expressions with grep
      5m 20s
    7. tr: Translating characters
      8m 17s
    8. tr: Deleting and squeezing characters
      5m 30s
    9. sed: Stream editor
      7m 45s
    10. sed: Regular expressions and back-references
      7m 8s
    11. cut: Cutting select text portions
      7m 42s
    12. diff: Comparing files
      4m 35s
    13. diff: Alternative formats
      4m 30s
    14. xargs: Passing argument lists to commands
      7m 25s
    15. xargs: Usage examples
      7m 59s
  10. 42m 25s
    1. Finder integration
      4m 45s
    2. Clipboard integration
      5m 5s
    3. Screen capture
      3m 42s
    4. Shut down, reboot, and sleep
      3m 34s
    5. Text to speech
      2m 36s
    6. Spotlight integration: Searching metadata
      3m 41s
    7. Spotlight integration: Metadata attributes
      4m 24s
    8. Using AppleScript
      5m 23s
    9. System configurations: Viewing and setting
      5m 51s
    10. System configurations: Examples
      3m 24s
  11. 1m 26s
    1. Conclusion
      1m 26s

Start learning today


Become a member
Share a link to this course

What are exercise files?


Can I take this course without the exercise files?


Become a member Download sample files See plans and pricing

Please wait... please wait ...
Upgrade to get access to exercise files.

Exercise files video

How to use exercise files.


Exercise files

Exercise files video

How to use exercise files.



Join now "Already a member? Log in



Mark all as unwatched Cancel


You have completed Unix for Mac OS X Users.


Become a member to add this course to a playlist


Get started

Already a member?

Become a member to like this course.


Get started

Already a member?

Exercise files


Get started

Already a Premium member?

Exercise files video

How to use exercise files.

Ask a question

Thanks for contacting us.
You’ll hear from our Customer Service team within 24 hours.

Please enter the text shown below:

The classic layout automatically defaults to the latest Flash Player.


Continue to classic layout Stay on new layout
Exercise files

Access exercise files from a button right under the course name.

Mark videos as unwatched


Control your viewing experience


Interactive transcripts


Are you sure you want to delete this note?


Your file was successfully uploaded.

Thanks for signing up.

We’ll send you a confirmation email shortly.






submit Lightbox submit clicked
Terms and conditions of use

Review and accept our updated terms of service.