Is there a way to search through all the text files in a folder (and subfolders) for a specific string or bit of text in Mac OS X?
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Chealion
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In a Finder window, you will find a search box in the upper right hand corner. Also, if you press Command-F, a more robust search will appear. Spotlight is another way to search your Mac. This is a command line tutorial primarily conducted in in the OS X command line. Because of OSX’s unix heritage, much of the info here is also useful in other unix inspired systems, like the Linux command line.
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8 Answers
You can't do this from the spotlight icon in the menu bar. But you can do it with spotlight:
Search: This Mac 'Your Folder Name'
Click on the name of your folder to restrict the search to the folder instead of the whole computer, which is what the default selection 'This Mac' does.
Then click the gear icon, choose show search criteria, and change the kind to text files.
ridogiridogi
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If you prefer the command line,
You'll need to be (or get) familiar with slhck
grep . Read man grep for more info.
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retracileretracile
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Very powerful and fast
Description:Mac Dev Centre - The Power of mdfind
Run5k
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user195192user195192
In the upper right hand corner of your screen: Spotlight
BBEdit supports great search, too, in files and folders.
Daniel Beck♦
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markratledgemarkratledge
c ignores case. See this answer for an overview of the query format and other attributes.
-F searches for fixed strings instead of regex. -l only prints the names of the matching files.
Community♦
LriLri
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Open Finder
Navigate to the folder you want to search if you have one.
Find Command Mac Terminal
Enter the term you want to search in the search bar in the upper right hand corner. You may need to stretch out the window to see it.
After you start typing or press enter you'll see a section below the search box to the left that says,
Search: This Mac 'Your Folder' Shared
If you want to search your whole computer click on 'This Mac'. Otherwise click on the folder name next to it. It may already be selected.
To the right side of those options is a 'Save' button with a plus sign next to it.
Click the plus sign. You'll see two drop down lists. In the first one select 'Kind'. In the second choose 'Any' or 'Text .
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Choosing 'Any' may find more matches, while 'Text' will find files Mac OS X determines fall under the category 'Text'.
The number of search results will appear at the footer if the footer is shown.
FYI I've noticed that sometimes it takes time to do a search and sometimes there is no indication Finder is doing anything. I wouldn't wait too long but if you're searching a small folder it should be very quick. If searching your Mac it may take up to a minute or more.
Nota bene: To find an exact phrase enclose it in quotes.
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I'd suggest you look at File Content Finder on the App Store (disclaimer - I'm its developer). It's an affordable app specifically designed for searching file contents without indexing. It supports text files and other major file formats (pdf, doc(x), xls(x), etc).
Its filtering lets you optimise and refine your search by multiple criteria - file type, creation/modification dates, etc.
Here is a detailed documentation on how it works.
Geo SystemsGeo Systems
For the faster search speed, you can use
ag (the silver searcher)
Installation:
brew install the_silver_searcher
Usage is alike, just replace the
grep to ag
For example,
![]() ag 'my string of text' -R .
More information can view on Github.
AsoulAsoul
protected by Community♦Jul 2 at 6:27
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When you turn on Dictation, you can do more than use your voice to enter text on your Mac. You can also use dictation commands to tell your Mac what to do, like ”undo that” or ”select the previous sentence.”
Excel Formula To Search For Text In A CellTurn on Dictation Commands
Most dictation commands turn on automatically when you turn on Enhanced Dictation:
You can now get a list of commands and select the ones that you want to use:
Use dictation commands
To use any of the commands that you turned on, first make your Mac listen for dictation commands:
Mac Command Line Find File
Then speak any of the phrases that work with a dictation command. You can even say “Show commands” to open a window showing all of the dictation commands available to you.
Create your own commands
After you select “Enable advanced commands,” an Add button appears beneath the list of commands.
![]() Search For Text Command Mac KeyboardSearch For Text On Iphone
Excel Search For Text
To learn more about dictation, choose Help from the Finder menu bar, then search for “dictation.”
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