7

I would like to exclude all the .git and .svn folders on my hardrive from the Spotlight index. I know I can manually add them through the GUI but since they are many of them, and often new ones, it would be difficult.

Is there any way to exclude a folder by name (rather than full path)? Or is there any way to exclude the folders using the command line (in which case, I could automatically find them and exclude them from time to time)?

Improve this question

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
2

It is possible to exclude a folder using the command-line.

From there try this:

  • Open a Terminal window

  • Type

    sudo defaults write /.Spotlight-V100/VolumeConfiguration.plist Exclusions -array-add 'path/to/exclude'

So I guess you can try this using xargs' magic:

sudo locate .git | xargs -I {} defaults write /.Spotlight-V100/VolumeConfiguration.plist Exclusions -array-add {}

You can check it worked using this:

sudo defaults read /.Spotlight-V100/VolumeConfiguration.plist Exclusions

You can remove all entries (there is no -array-remove option) using this:

sudo defaults write /.Spotlight-V100/VolumeConfiguration.plist Exclusions -array

Be careful with these commands, I don't know if there are side effects.

I could not really check this worked for my .git folders since none of them were displayed by spotlight search before nor after running these commands.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .