[OS X TeX] Spotlight importers

[Bruno Voisin]

Le 3 mai 05 à 10:33, Maarten Sneep a écrit :

> [omitted very useful info]

Thanks for this, it's really useful.

>> - Aren't hidden directories like /usr/local/teTeX searched  
>> automatically when building the SpotLight database?
>
> I'm not sure if the hidden directories are indexed by default. Even  
> though the indexing is hooked into the kernel to patch all file- 
> write actions, it is still possible to exclude certain directories.  
> there are a number of md* utilities:
>     mdutil (remove an index, turn on or turn off indexing for a  
> particular volume, status. requires sudo)
>     mdimport (force a file or tree to be (re-)indexed.)
>     mdls (see what info is indexed on a file)
>     mdfind (use spotlight from the command-line, using the 'raw'  
> syntax).

After having tried, I can confirm:

- Before running "mdimport -f /usr/local/teTeX", looking for say  
"fntguide" in SpotLight returned nothing.

- After, it returns a number of html, cls, dvi and txt files, as well  
as email messages and pdf files. Double-clicking any dvi file in the  
SpotLight window opens up TeXShop which, after a couple of seconds,  
displays the conversion of this dvi file to pdf. Vow!

>> - Given the files in this directory are generally owned by root  
>> (depending on whether or not you stuck to the default setting when  
>> installing the TeX i-Package), should mdimport be sudo'ed?
>
> I'm not sure: you can still read those files. The security issues  
> as to whether you should see a particular file in the results is  
> handled at a different level.

Of course, you're right!

>> And getting OT, for those that might be interested:
>>
>> - I just noticed this morning on MacNN that Wolfram Research has  
>> already released a SpotLight module for Mathematica notebooks  
>> <http://library.wolfram.com/infocenter/Utilities/5614>. I just  
>> hope it works with Mathematica 4!
>
> I'd guess so, the functionality may be different, but the basic  
> format is still text.

It works indeed. For example, looking for "besselj" in SpotLight  
yields in 3 seconds about 70 answers: notebooks in which I used  
BesselJ, email messages with Wolfram Research people, theses  
downloaded from the web and also using BesselJ. Amazing!

And as I'm typing this, I see this message -- probably at the time  
it's saved automatically in the Drafts mailbox --  appearing in the  
SpotLight window in which I looked for "fntguide"!

Bruno Voisin--------------------- Info ---------------------
Mac-TeX Website: http://www.esm.psu.edu/mac-tex/
           & FAQ: http://latex.yauh.de/faq/
TeX FAQ: http://www.tex.ac.uk/faq
List Post: <mailto:MacOSX-TeX at email.esm.psu.edu>