I have reproduced the problem now also in El Capitan with new components (motherboard, 3x SSD) in my Macbook Air 2013-mid. I have had clean installation of OS X (El Capitan, Yosemite) while doing the test. The latest OS X where the .tex search works is 10.8.5 in Spotlight. I do not see any .tex documents in my Spotlight search at the moment. Tests
- No current answer solves the problem permanently. In Yosemite, the problem became back after a while with some answers. No stable solution exists and little understanding what is the cause of the problem.
The selection of Settings configurations are not relevant in Spotlight because we can use directly the command mdfind in terminal, which is equivalent to Spotlight.
However, we have tried Default, minimal and Full settings in Spotlight.
For the tests, we use default Settings in OS X.
System and Applications
- Systems OS X Yosemite, OS X El Capitan
- TexShop.app is installed. (MacTeX 2015, mactex-20150613.pkg).
- Tex App: TextMate2-beta8
- Spotlight/Finder/any search app does not work with TeX files and MacTeX 2015
- Spotlight works as expected with some different settings and also with MacTeX 2015.
The command mdfind (version June 10, 2004) is equivalent to Spotlight search so a simple test which returns nothing unsuccessfully in my system
mdfind sulfas | grep tex
I think the problem is that the system does not recognize the fileformat .tex`. The first thing is to get the system recognize it.
tjt263's suggestion to search only .tex in Finder/Spotlight
Output of Spotlight .tex or the terminal command gives tex -files correctly in my system.
However, combining it to other terms like, by .tex diabetes, gives no tex -files anymore.
Importers obtained by mdimport -L:
2015-09-22 15:31:42.352 mdimport[8163:707] Paths: id(502) (
"/Library/Spotlight/iBooksAuthor.mdimporter",
"/Library/Spotlight/iWork.mdimporter",
"/Library/Spotlight/Microsoft Office.mdimporter",
"/System/Library/Spotlight/Application.mdimporter",
"/System/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter",
"/System/Library/Spotlight/Audio.mdimporter",
"/System/Library/Spotlight/Automator.mdimporter",
"/System/Library/Spotlight/Bookmarks.mdimporter",
"/System/Library/Spotlight/Chat.mdimporter",
"/System/Library/Spotlight/CoreMedia.mdimporter",
"/System/Library/Spotlight/Font.mdimporter",
"/System/Library/Spotlight/iCal.mdimporter",
"/System/Library/Spotlight/Image.mdimporter",
"/System/Library/Spotlight/iPhoto.mdimporter",
"/System/Library/Spotlight/iPhoto8.mdimporter",
"/System/Library/Spotlight/Mail.mdimporter",
"/System/Library/Spotlight/MIDI.mdimporter",
"/System/Library/Spotlight/Notes.mdimporter",
"/System/Library/Spotlight/PDF.mdimporter",
"/System/Library/Spotlight/PS.mdimporter",
"/System/Library/Spotlight/QuartzComposer.mdimporter",
"/System/Library/Spotlight/RichText.mdimporter",
"/System/Library/Spotlight/SystemPrefs.mdimporter",
"/System/Library/Spotlight/vCard.mdimporter",
"/Applications/Microsoft Office 2011/Microsoft Outlook.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/Microsoft Outlook.mdimporter",
"/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/uuid.mdimporter",
"/Applications/DjView.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/DjVu.mdimporter"
)
bmikes's tests
File notes.tex not searchable in Finder. I change it to notes.txt which I can now search in Finder. This proposes me that not Search -program problem (Spotlight, md..., whatever you use, as I described many times in comments). So tex -problem in the system. Outputs of the same file but with two different endings. Output of txt -file:
15:42:23:Desktop:masi$ mdls 8.9.2015.txt
kMDItemContentCreationDate = 2015-09-22 13:38:31 +0000
kMDItemContentModificationDate = 2015-09-22 13:38:31 +0000
kMDItemContentType = "public.plain-text"
kMDItemContentTypeTree = (
"public.plain-text",
"public.text",
"public.data",
"public.item",
"public.content"
)
kMDItemDateAdded = 2015-09-22 13:39:22 +0000
kMDItemDisplayName = "8.9.2015.txt"
kMDItemFSContentChangeDate = 2015-09-22 13:38:31 +0000
kMDItemFSCreationDate = 2015-09-22 13:38:31 +0000
kMDItemFSCreatorCode = ""
kMDItemFSFinderFlags = 0
kMDItemFSHasCustomIcon = 0
kMDItemFSInvisible = 0
kMDItemFSIsExtensionHidden = 0
kMDItemFSIsStationery = 0
kMDItemFSLabel = 0
kMDItemFSName = "8.9.2015.txt"
kMDItemFSNodeCount = 62503
kMDItemFSOwnerGroupID = 20
kMDItemFSOwnerUserID = 502
kMDItemFSSize = 62503
kMDItemFSTypeCode = ""
kMDItemKind = "Plain Text Document"
kMDItemLogicalSize = 62503
kMDItemPhysicalSize = 65536
Output of tex -file:
15:42:27:Desktop:masi$ mdls 8.9.2015.tex
kMDItemContentCreationDate = 2015-09-22 13:38:31 +0000
kMDItemContentModificationDate = 2015-09-22 13:38:31 +0000
kMDItemContentType = "org.tug.tex"
kMDItemContentTypeTree = (
"org.tug.tex",
"public.text",
"public.data",
"public.item",
"public.content"
)
kMDItemDateAdded = 2015-09-22 13:42:37 +0000
kMDItemDisplayName = "8.9.2015.tex"
kMDItemFSContentChangeDate = 2015-09-22 13:38:31 +0000
kMDItemFSCreationDate = 2015-09-22 13:38:31 +0000
kMDItemFSCreatorCode = ""
kMDItemFSFinderFlags = 0
kMDItemFSHasCustomIcon = 0
kMDItemFSInvisible = 0
kMDItemFSIsExtensionHidden = 0
kMDItemFSIsStationery = 0
kMDItemFSLabel = 0
kMDItemFSName = "8.9.2015.tex"
kMDItemFSNodeCount = 62503
kMDItemFSOwnerGroupID = 20
kMDItemFSOwnerUserID = 502
kMDItemFSSize = 62503
kMDItemFSTypeCode = ""
kMDItemKind = "TeX document"
kMDItemLogicalSize = 62503
kMDItemPhysicalSize = 65536
Wanted commands:
mkdir /Users/masi/Desktop/masi
18:07:56:~:masii$ cp /tmp/8.9.2015.tex /Users/masi/Desktop/masi/
18:08:09:~:masi$ cd /Users/masi/Desktop/masi/
18:08:16:masi:masi$ echo osteoporosis > test_file.txt
18:08:24:masi:masi$ mdfind osteoporosis |grep /Users/masi/Desktop/masi/
/Users/masi/Desktop/masi/test_file.txt
18:08:47:masi:masi$ mdls -name kMDItemContentType test_file.txt
kdItemContentType = (public.plain-text)
18:09:49:masi:masi$ mv test_file.txt test_file.tex
18:10:14:masi:masi$ mdfind osteoporosis | grep /Users/masi/Desktop/masi/
18:10:20:masi:masi$ mdls -name kMDItemContentType test_file.tex
kMDItemContentType = "org.tug.tex"
Current Diagnostic Tools Using and Discussing in Chat
Well-hidden command from Is it possible to query the launch services database for applications that will open an arbitrary file or UTI type?
/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -dump | grep -n7 org.tug.tex
We found that the MacTeX 2015's TeXShop does not have TeX.mdimporter. Installing this gives on the last line of mdimport -L:
"/Applications/TeX/TeXShop.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/TeX.mdimporter" )
Unsuccessful try with Patrix
mkdir -p ~/Library/Spotlight; ln -s /Applications/TeX/TeXShop.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/TeX.mdimporter ~/Library/Spotlight/
after which rm ~/Library/Spotlight/TeX.mdimporter and we reseted the index of Spotlight by moving HardDisc to the Prevent -panel and quickly remove it, so taking now some time to index the system.
klanomath's answer results which worked one day until going back to the bad state
I get unstably some .tex files in mdfind. After one day use from the init of this proposal, the condition went back to the bad state:
- osteoporosis search returns the same files as one day ago, but I noticed that those files, which have not been visible in search matches recently and enough long time when last time edited, are not visible in the search
- only recently edited files shown, and actually sometimes even 3.5 months old files shown
Running 18:25:06:~:masi$ /usr/bin/mdimport -d3 /Users/masi/Dropbox/Internal\ Diseases/24.9.2015.tex and getting
(Debug) Import: file:/Users/masi/Dropbox/Internal Diseases/24.9.2015.tex plugin:file://localhost/Library/Spotlight/TeX.mdimporter/ /Library/Spotlight/TeX.mdimporter
(Info) Import: edu.uo.texshop.tex
(Debug) Import: Attributes for file /Users/masi/Dropbox/Internal Diseases/24.9.2015.tex: {
":MD:kMDExtendedImportDictionary" = {
};
"_kMDItemFinderLabel" = 0;
"com_apple_metadata_modtime" = 464803819;
kMDItemContentCreationDate = "2015-09-23 19:57:11 +0000";
kMDItemContentModificationDate = "2015-09-24 16:10:19 +0000";
kMDItemContentType = "edu.uo.texshop.tex";
kMDItemContentTypeTree = (
"edu.uo.texshop.tex",
"public.text",
"public.data",
"public.item",
"public.content",
"public.plain-text",
"org.tug.tex"
);
kMDItemDateAdded = "2015-09-23 19:57:11 +0000";
kMDItemDisplayName = {
"" = "24.9.2015.tex";
};
kMDItemKind = {
"" = "TeX File";
en = "TeX File";
pt = "Documento TeX";
};
kMDItemLogicalSize = 18220;
kMDItemPhysicalSize = 20480;
kMDItemTextContent = "\...";
}
2015-09-24 18:25:50.335 mdimport[6875:707] Imported '/Users/masi/Dropbox/Internal Diseases/24.9.2015.tex' of type 'edu.uo.texshop.tex' with plugIn /Library/Spotlight/TeX.mdimporter.
2015-09-24 18:25:50.336 mdimport[6875:707] Attributes: {
":MD:kMDExtendedImportDictionary" = {
};
"_kMDItemFinderLabel" = 0;
"_kMDItemStaticInterestScore" = "0.5";
"com_apple_metadata_modtime" = 464803819;
kMDItemContentCreationDate = "2015-09-23 19:57:11 +0000";
kMDItemContentModificationDate = "2015-09-24 16:10:19 +0000";
kMDItemContentType = "edu.uo.texshop.tex";
kMDItemContentTypeTree = (
"edu.uo.texshop.tex",
"public.text",
"public.data",
"public.item",
"public.content",
"public.plain-text",
"org.tug.tex"
);
kMDItemDateAdded = "2015-09-23 19:57:11 +0000";
kMDItemDisplayName = {
"" = "24.9.2015.tex";
};
kMDItemKind = {
"" = "TeX File";
en = "TeX File";
pt = "Documento TeX";
};
kMDItemLogicalSize = 18220;
kMDItemPhysicalSize = 20480;
kMDItemTextContent = "\...";
}
Guess about the origin of the problem: /Volumes/Disc/.Spotlight-V100/...
I investigated the dynamics of the memory at different time points by fdupes -rd /Volumes/Disc2/, the following sample is during indexing:
[1] /Users/masi/Dropbox/det2/plan.tex
[2] /Volumes/Disc2/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V2/440B4DE1-129F-46AB-9D58-14F473B0282A/Cache/0000/0000/0003/213630.txt
[3] /Volumes/Disc2/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V2/440B4DE1-129F-46AB-9D58-14F473B0282A/Cache/0000/0000/0003/213631.txt
[4] /Volumes/Disc2/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V2/440B4DE1-129F-46AB-9D58-14F473B0282A/Cache/0000/0000/0003/213633.txt
... [10] sometimes much more
---
where the file content is two empty lines. You see many duplicate entries created by Spotlight for its index. Spotlight's index has much duplicates in many points of its functioning. I also studied this behavior across different medias. There are a lot of dummy/duplicate files created during the indexing and during the stable period when the indexing is done. I think Apple has done bad work in designing the index which Spotlight is using.
How can you search LaTeX documents with mdfind/Spotlight/Finder?
