As a software developer, I often need to look into files within the Library folder.
For quick access, I'd like to be able to see the files in my Spotlight searches.
How can I do that?
Spotlight – Show Library Folder and Subfolders in Spotlight Search
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Related Solutions
If you're comfortable opening the terminal you could run the command
locate ABC/readme.txt
and it will give you the full file path to any files on your machine that are named readme.txt in a folder named ABC.
While you're there you can copy and past the path as an argument to the open command and it will open it for you.
Taking it one step further you can use the output of locate as the arguments for open with xargs
locate ABC/readme.txt | xargs open
Will open all files that have ABC/readme.txt on your machine just as if you had double-clicked them.
Alfred uses the Spotlight index by default, and LaunchBar also has an option to use it. The Spotlight index includes almost all files, so you don't have to adjust what files to index manually.
By default, Alfred is conservative in what types of files it searches for, to avoid muddying your search results. You can tick the boxes for what parts you want to be included in the results by default. If you want to search among all files on the system, you just need to press the spacebar before you begin typing the search term, and it will then search the full Spotlight index rather than just a subsection of it. You also have the open/find keywords, which likewise search the full Spotlight index.
If you always want it to search the full index, then you can enable that option in the preferences. Despite the warning, Alfred is pretty usable (and very fast) even if you enable searching for all files.
(It still excludes the system files that are hidden from normal Spotlight results. But you can search for those by creating a search filter.)
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Best Answer
You can include System Files like those in the Library folders in a Spotlight search, if you use Spotlight within Finder via the search bar in the top right corner of each Finder window.
Just type in your search and click the small + appearing below the search bar. In the opening window search for System files and tick it's box for In Menu and click OK.
Afterwards select System files from the dropdown menu on the left and select are included in the next dropdown.
The process is also described here: How to Search for Hidden, Packaged, and System Files in OS X
If you want a simpler method you can use an alternative for Spotlight like Alfred or LaunchBar. These tools work just like spotlight and can include System files within their search scope besides lots of other features.