Smart folder filter “does not contain”

smart-folders

Smart Folder Exclude Folder

Ultimately I want the result of this find command to be a smart folder.

The criteria aren't that complicated:

name should be "README.md"
type should be file
path should not contain "node_modules"

find /Users/me/Documents -type f -name README.md -not -path "*/node_modules/*"

The problem is that the smart folders criteria operator list seems to be lacking a does not contain option.

The available options are:

matches
contains
begins with
ends with
is
is not

Is it possible to accomplish this and if so then how?

Edit 1

I found that by holding the option key I am able to add a negation clause to the smart folder search criteria but I cannot seem to successfully exclude the node_modules folder. It is unclear which criteria to use but none of the ones I have tried seem to work:

Document Container
Containing Folder Names
Folder Name

I have tried combining these with the following operators:

contains
matches

and with the following terms:

node_modules
node_modules

in case it supports wildcard searches.

I have tried all combinations of the above filters, operators and terms.

The documentation is so poor on the subject.

enter image description here

Best Answer

It looks like kMDItemPath can't do what you need:

no-results-in-spotlight-in-searches-against-kmditempath

Some potential alternatives are discussed here:

how-to-locate-a-file-in-spotlight-using-folder-and-file-name

Related Solutions

Smart Folder: how to create listing of all files in a folder

By default, the Spotlight GUI in the Finder will not let you use wildcards or other advanced syntax. However, by using the Raw Query search criterion, you can use all the syntax available to the command-line mdfind utility:

Navigate to your ~/Music folder
Hit ⌘ F
Double-check the Scope Bar of the search to make sure Spotlight is just searching your Music folder
Hit the "+" button to add a search criterion
From the criteria drop-down menu, check if the Raw Query criterion is visible (it isn't by default). If not, click Other... and a criteria list will appear. Search for the Raw Query criterion, check the box to include it in the menu, and click "OK".

Select the newly-visible Raw Query criterion and enter the following:

(kMDItemFSName == '*.mp3') || (kMDItemFSName == '*.ogg') || (kMDItemFSName == '*.flac')

The above query will search for files that have .mp3, .ogg, or .flac in their filename (as opposed to the contents of the file). This Macworld article helped me construct this particular query, but this Apple Developer page has a more comprehensive listing of the types of metadata available for raw queries.

Alternatively, you can construct the desired query visually:

Spotlight query

Navigate to your ~/Music folder
Hit ⌘ F
Double-check the Scope Bar of the search to make sure Spotlight is just searching your Music folder
Hit the "+" button to add a search criterion
Choose the Kind criterion and set it to Any
Hold down the Option/Alt key to create a conditional (thanks to Adam Franco for pointing this out) and set it to Any
From the criteria drop-down menu, check if the File extension criterion is visible. If not, click Other... and a criteria list will appear. Search for the File extension criterion, check the box to include it in the menu, and click "OK".
Add as many File extension criteria as you wish.

If you want the search to display all files below a given folder (regardless of file type), you can use the File visibility criterion:

Navigate to your ~/Music folder
Hit ⌘ F
Double-check the Scope Bar of the search to make sure Spotlight is just searching your Music folder
Hit the "+" button to add a search criterion
From the criteria drop-down menu, check if the File visibility criterion is visible (it isn't by default). If not, click Other... and a criteria list will appear. Search for the File invisible criterion, check the box to include it in the menu, and click "OK".
The File visibility option should now be in the search criterion drop-down menu. So long as this criterion is set to "Visible or Invisible", all files below the present folder will be shown (you can optionally change this to "Visible Items" you don't want dot-files in the results)

MacOS – Smart Mailbox Folder not displaying mail

The update (released today) for Mountain Lion, version 10.8.5, is supposed to, among other things:

Fix an issue that may prevent Mail from displaying messages.

I'd be curious to see, since this issue was never solved, if this update resolves it.