What to use for a FIND command?

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Spotlight doesn't find certain things. For example, I want to locate and delete all files on my hard disk that end with ".vcf". But Spotlight won't find them. Is there some 3rd party utility that works like the old FIND command and will find any file?
 
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Command + F is no good. It doesn't find files that end with ".vcf" either. It was my understanding that Command-F just used the same Spotlight engine.

I can see files that end with ".vcf" in my email folder. For example, I can see a file with the name "njepsen.vcf". But if I COPY and PASTE that file name into Command-F and search for files whose "Name" "Is" "njepsen.vcf" on "Computer", it finds no hits.
 
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I'm no expert with Terminal, but I typed "find . -type f *.vcf" into it and got the reply "find: *.vcf: unknown expression primary".

Anyway, I'm really not so keen on using Unix commands to find files. I just want an OS X "FIND" command that finds what I ask for. What's the logic behind excluding some results?
 

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Try EasyFind. It's a GUI-driven search utility that can find ANYTHING, even if it's a hidden (. file) or system directory.

I also remember reading a Macworld article that showed how to modify Spotlight to search for hidden and system files, but I'll be dipped if I can find that at the moment.

Even still EasyFind is a much better utility if you need to dredge an entire disk, file by file.
 
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I was having the same problem. It seems to only be with Leopard cause I tested it on my Tiger machine and it finds all the files.

I gave up on spotlight for now and downloaded EasyFind and it works great.

Maybe I'll search on Macworld to see if I can find the article you were talking about cwa107. If you find it, please post it :) I'd rather use spotlight than have to open a new application.
 

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I have had no issues finding anything using the Command+F find. I tried even in the email and other folders and it found everything I tried.
 
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Standard UNIX find command is what you want.

Spotlight doesn't find certain things. For example, I want to locate and delete all files on my hard disk that end with ".vcf". But Spotlight won't find them. Is there some 3rd party utility that works like the old FIND command and will find any file?

find / -name "*.vcf"

from the terminal will find all files that end in .vcf extension (starting at root of the filesystem). Look at the man page for find, you can construct more complex expressions and customize your search criteria further or execute a command on all files found etc.

If you also want to delete the files execute the following:

find / -name "*.vcf" -exec rm "{}" ";"

But be careful about this command since it will delete the files (not move them to trash) so they can't be recovered.
 

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I followed the directions in the Macworld article, but I don't get the option of choosing "System Files".

I'll try EasyFind.
 

dtravis7


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Nice find, that's the one I was talking about. Not sure what keywords you used, but I couldn't find it in 10 minutes or so of searching.

Yeah that is what I had been using also. Been a while as I rarely search for System files. Works well though.
 
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@bdmsb

In the find window where there is the drop down that says "kind" by default click on that and select "other.." and a butt load of other options will pop up. Find "system files" in the list. You can check the check mark so it shows up in the drop down menu without having to go to "other.." in the future.
 
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Did that. The first item in the list is "Album" and the last item is "Year recored" but there is no "System files".
 

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Did that. The first item in the list is "Album" and the last item is "Year recored" but there is no "System files".

Check these pics. It's not the other next door to kind, it's the Kind menu drops down like this when you click then you select Other from there and a selector will open. That is the 2nd pic here. Scroll to the bottom and select System Files. Then look at my 3rd pic. Be sure to select Include.

If you look at the 2nd pic the In Menu checkbox he was talking about is there. Check that.

Hope this helps.

search1.jpg

search2.jpg

search3.jpg
 
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Yeah, I'm doing the same thing. But you have "System files" between "Subject" and "Tempo". On my machine (10.4.11) it's not there. Our two lists are similar, but with many differences.

But EasyFind works great. I doubt that "System files" would have found the ".vcf" files anyway, they're not "system". EasyFind located several dozen of them and let me delete them.
 
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Well that's the problem, Spotlight on Tiger works differently than on Leopard. By default in Leopard spotlight doesn't search inside the library folder, which is why you would need to include system files on Leopard. Tiger already searches inside the library.

EasyFind is a great program too, so as long as you found a solution that works for you, that's the important thing.
 
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See, now I don't get this. I hate it when the computer thinks it knows what I want to do better than I do. I don't understand the logic of a FIND command that doesn't find everything. In 2008 are we not supposed to need to search the library folder? This seems like a "dumbing down" of computer use that is unnecessary.

Anyway, the ".vcf" files are not System files nor are they in the Library folder. They're just annoying email attachments. The Apple FIND command still can't see them. And no one has an explanation for it.
 

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If I remember correctly if you dp the following:

find / -name "*.vcf"

It appears that nothing happens, but if you add

find / -name "*.vcf" -print

You will see the file you are looking for. You may need to do the following thou.

sudo find / -name "*.vcf" -print

Also like root suggested if you want to just delete the files then

sudo find / - name "*.vcf" -exec rm -i {} \;

I added the -i option to enable prompting for each file to be deleted.
 

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