While helpful, the accepted answer is incomplete.
- OP wanted a list of all file metadata in macOS.
- The question is valid, but an exhaustive list don't exist afaik, as the set of metadata attributes is dynamic.
- New keys are added e.g. whenever you install new software, and also appears to reflect which user is currently logged in.
1. The mdls
man-page refers to the mdfind
page under SEE ALSO:
$ man mdls
(...)
SEE ALSO
mdfind(1), mdutil(1) xargs(1)
2. Looking up the mdfind
manual
$ man mdfind
(...)
To get a list of the available attributes for use in constructing queries,
see mdimport(1), particularly the -X switch.
3. Querying mdimport
(today is December 24th, 2019 - on my desktop running macOS 10.15.2 (19C57)
$ mdimport -X
(...)
Schema: id(501) {
Attributes = {
MessageGUIDs = {
multivalued = 1;
name = MessageGUIDs;
nosearch = 1;
type = CFString;
};
"_kMDItemDomainIdentifier" = {
multivalued = 0;
name = "_kMDItemDomainIdentifier";
nosearch = 1;
notokenize = 1;
type = CFString;
};
"_kMDItemUserTags" = {
multivalued = 1;
name = "_kMDItemUserTags";
nosearch = 1;
type = CFString;
uniqued = 1;
};
"com_DEVONtechnologies_think_DatabaseName" = {
multivalued = 0;
name = "com_DEVONtechnologies_think_DatabaseName";
type = CFString;
uniqued = 1;
};
(...)