This document is a Mac OS X manual page. Manual pages are a command-line technology for providing documentation. You can view these manual pages locally using the man(1) command. These manual pages come from many different sources, and thus, have a variety of writing styles.

For more information about the manual page format, see the manual page for manpages(5).

mdimport(1)               BSD General Commands Manual              mdimport(1)

NAME
     mdimport -- import file hierarchies into the metadata datastore.

SYNOPSIS
     mdimport [-VXLrg] [-d level | category] [-w delay] file | directory

DESCRIPTION
     mdimport is used to import metadata from files or file system hierarchies into the Spotlight metadata
     store.  It is usually run automatically by mds(8) when new files are added, but can also be run manu-ally. manually.
     ally.

     The following options are available:

     -g plugin   Load the plugin at the provided path, ignoring system installed plugins.  Useful for test-ing testing
                 ing plugins that have not yet been installed.

     -V          Print timing information for this run of mdimport.

     -A          Print out the list of all of the attributes and their localizations in the current language
                 and exit.

     -X          Print the schema file and exit

     -r          Ask the server to reimport files for UTIs claimed by the listed plugin.  For example, the
                 following would cause all of the chat files on the system to be reimported:

                       mdimport -r /System/Library/Spotlight/Chat.mdimporter

     -p          Print out performance information gathered during the run.

     -L          Print the list of installed importers and exit.

     -d level    Print debugging information.  Level can be 1-4.

     -n          Don't actually set the attributes on the file.  Useful for debugging.

     -w msecs    Wait for the specified interval between scanning files.

NOTES
     The -f switch is obsolete in Leopard and beyond.

SEE ALSO
     mdcheckschema(1), mdfind(1), mdutil(1), mdls(1)

Mac OS X                         Oct 27, 2004                         Mac OS X