I'm on Catalina. If you do a search, you may search based on a huge list of "search attributes," (see image) which I assume are all extended file attributes. I want to be able to see ALL of these attributes for a file and have not been able to find a way, even in Terminal (I've tried xattr and ls -@l, but those don't get it, not even close). Any ideas? Don't mind using a shell or script... Thanks! - Bee
Mac mini, macOS 10.15
Howdy,
That is a very extensive list. It amazed me too.
Not all of those search attributes are metadata for the file. A simple example is Contents: Text content of this item.
And of course, not every file will have the same metadata as another file.
For example, a picture may have Aperture Value, but not Audio bit rate.
The simple way to see the metadata is to Get Info on the file.
From: Narrow your search results on Mac
To view metadata for a file, select the file, then choose File > Get Info.
Some examples:
Although I'm currently booted to Big Sur, the article linked is for Catalina and it should work there too.
ivan
Aha! A roundabout way of getting there, but this lead me to xattred-sandstrip-xattr-tools where I dl'd xattred to give myself a GUI for looking at xattr's AND their associated plists. While the file did not have the extended Spotlight attributes I had hoped for, I now know at least a method for examining the data I want. Thank you for setting me on the path!
bee61 wrote:
I'm on Catalina. If you do a search, you may search based on a huge list of "search attributes," (see image) which I assume are all extended file attributes. I want to be able to see ALL of these attributes for a file and have not been able to find a way, even in Terminal (I've tried xattr and ls -@l, but those don't get it, not even close). Any ideas? Don't mind using a shell or script... Thanks! - Bee
https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/726fd32d-0d5d-4054-b268-197f50a7651a
ref: https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/324303/is-there-a-way-to-get-spotlight-to-search-for-xattr
<chuckle> Thank you, but yes, I know all about get info, I hadn't thought to mention it as it is so basic. You are right though, not every file is going to have every attribute given there, but it appears that some files will have more attributes than others specific to their type and that this is held... somewhere? xattr just gives me something like:
com.apple.macl
com.apple.metadata:kMDItemDownloadedDate
com.apple.metadata:kMDItemWhereFroms
com.apple.quarantine
That's not very useful (I'm trying to find out when the file was by the author, not when I first saved it). I may be tilting at windmills. I've heard some people using fileXray. I may try that and see...
How to list all OS/X extended file attributes
