This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Ruby Buzz by Ryan Davis. Original Post: locate and spotlight Feed Title: Polishing Ruby Feed URL: http://blog.zenspider.com/index.rdf Feed Description: Musings on Ruby and the Ruby Community... Latest Ruby Buzz Posts Latest Ruby Buzz Posts by Ryan Davis Latest Posts From Polishing Ruby

locate and spotlight each have their pros and cons. I like both for different reasons, but recently I caught on to using mdfind (spotlight's command-line interface) to search for file-names only. It is still a little slower than locate (but not much) but always up to date:

(defun locate-make-mdfind-command-line (search-string)
  (list "mdfind" (concat "kMDItemDisplayName=*" search-string "*")))

(defun spotlight ()
  "Search for files by name using spotlight"
  (interactive)
  (let ((locate-command "mdfind")
        (locate-make-command-line 'locate-make-mdfind-command-line))
    (call-interactively 'locate nil)))

(defun spotlight-full ()
  "Search using spotlight"
  (interactive)
  (let ((locate-command "mdfind"))
    (call-interactively 'locate nil)))

If you're feeling adventurous, keep the first defun and set locate-command and locate-make-command-line via customize. I did that for a few weeks but I like the flexibility of having both available.