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Spotlight generally excludes OS X system folders (such as /etc and /bin) from its searches. But, if you know the name of the system folder you want to search, you can search in it anyway.
For example, to search for a file in the /etc folder, select Go: Go to Folder in the Finder. Type /etc in the Go to field and click Go. With that folder now open in the Finder, type whatever it is you want to look for in the Finder window's Spotlight field. When the Search bar appears, select "etc" as the folder to search (instead of This Mac). If you select one of the found files and check its file path at the bottom of the search window, you'll see that the search results are indeed within one of those previously unsearchable folders.
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[22,264 views]
Hint Options
10.5: Search system folders in Spotlight
Leopard added a search parameter for system folders. It just isn't visible by default. But it can be made visible.
10.5: Search system folders in Spotlight
Great tip, thanks!
10.5: Search system folders in Spotlight
Thanks for the tip! :D
The OP's hint does this site a disservice (that's becoming too common here, IMO)
I also came into the comments to point out that there was this easier, sanctioned way to accomplish this hint, only to find I had been beaten to the punch.
10.5: Search system folders in Spotlight
I believe you will need to be root to read those files so you would need to be root to spotlight the contents.
10.5: Search system folders in Spotlight
Nope.
Mini-rant
When you are in a Finder folder that you would like to search, and you type into the search bar in that finder window WHY OH WHY does it switch to Macintosh HD?!
If I'd wanted to search Macintosh HD then I would have bleedin' well used Spotlight in the first place. This is one of the few Windows-style counter-intuitive bits of strong-arming left in the OS and hopefully Snowy will get rid of it. ---
Mini-rant
snow leopard actually has a preference for this. why this was working in tiger (10.4) by default then taken out of leopard (10.5) and made available as an option again in snow leopard (10.6) is beyond me. apple can be retarded sometimes.
Mini-rant
I think it was Steve Jobs (back in the day) who said that he couldn't imagine why anyone would *ever* want more than a megabyte of ram... :)
Yeah, Apple is retarded sometimes. But I haven't yet met anyone who isn't retarded some of the time. The nice thing about Apple is that they try not to make a habit out of it.
Mini-rant
People who have intellectual impairments/mental retardation and their families and friends would appreciate it if you didn't use the term "retarded" in that way. It demeans those who, through no fault of their own, do experience that challenge.
Mini-rant
People who have intellectual impairments/mental retardation and their families and friends would appreciate it if you didn't use the term "retarded" in that way. It demeans those who, through no fault of their own, do experience that challenge.If you are talking about people with cognitive/affective disorders or impairments, I would never call those people retarded, because they are not. The word 'retarded' implies someone who is operating well below the level they can (or ought) to be operating at. Those people I have met who have actual impairments (as a rule) do more within their limits than the rest of us do within ours, and ought to be commended for it. Don't legitimize 'retarded' as an insult to the impaired by complaining about it (because, frankly, using the word as an insult to the impaired is something only a *truly* retarded person would do).
Mini-rant
Nope that was Bill Gates talking of 512KB of Memory.
Mini-rant
Thanks for this hint!
Mini-rant
Boy do i hear ya! That "feature" of Leopard is routinely one of the most frustrating aspects that I battle with and rail against, almost daily. I can't fathom what in heck Apple was thinking when they changed that from the way it worked in Tiger. Beyond stupid!
10.5: Search system folders in Spotlight
What I wonder is whether there is a way to search, or include in a search, the trash? What if you're looking for a file you misplaced that is in the trash waiting to be lost forever?
10.5: Search system folders in Spotlight
(shameless self-promotion)
10.5: Search system folders in Spotlight
Alternatively, set it permanently to search system files as described in my hint: http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080229204517495
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