How to omit (exclude, skip, remove) specific folders from QS index?

[Milan Kovac]

Hi,

how to exclude some folders from QuickSilver catalogue (or index)?

e.g.

In folder tree:

user/Desktop

user/Documents

user/donotindex

user/Movies

user/Pictures

I want to remove folder 'donotindex' from QuickSilver search result.

How to achieve this?

Thanks in advance!

[Rob McBroom]

You can remove individual items from the catalog if you know what’s adding them. One way to figure that out is to select the folder and choose the “Show Source in Catalog” action to see where it’s coming from, but…

1. I don’t think that action is enabled by default, so you’d have to enable it in the Actions prefs.
2. The folder you’re talking about is almost certainly being added to the catalog by the preset you can find under Catalog → User → Home

If you select the preset that’s adding it to the prefs and open the info drawer, then click the Contents tab, you can uncheck individual items.

Note that if you’re browsing your home directory by calling it up and hitting → or /, you will still see all folders.

--
Rob McBroom

[Milan Kovac]

Thank you for answer.

I did use "Show Source in Catalog" and I see parent folder that add this "unwanted" folder ("donotindex"). 

Problem with solution (2.) to "open Contents tab and uncheck individual items" is that it wont work (I try it)!

I can not just uncheck "donotindex" folder from Contents tab. 

If I uncheck "donotindex" folder in Contents tab, Quicksilver will still find items _inside_ "donotindex" folder!

For this solution to work I should probably uncheck all files inside folder "donotindex" in Contents tab manualy... which is IMPOSSIBLE (I will add new files and folders inside "donotindex" folder as time pass, so I can not always uncheck all these new files in Contents tab)! :)

Is it possible to remove one folder, and all its subfiles and its subfolders, somehow?

Or maybe I can somehow re-index Catalog after uncheking "donotindex" folder?

Thanks once again! :)

[Rob McBroom]

On 4 May 2020, at 13:31, Milan Kovac wrote:

I did use "Show Source in Catalog" and I see parent folder that add this
"unwanted" folder ("donotindex").

Problem with solution (2.) to "open Contents tab and uncheck individual
items" is that it wont work (I try it)!
I can not just uncheck "donotindex" folder from Contents tab.
If I uncheck "donotindex" folder in Contents tab, Quicksilver will still
find items _inside_ "donotindex" folder!

The “Home” preset is set to a depth of 1, so it will add the folders in your home directory, but not their contents. Are you sure it’s not being added by another preset? Maybe the folder in question isn’t actually in your home directory and the folder structure above was just an example?

Is it possible to remove one folder, and all its subfiles and its
subfolders, somehow?

If you have a catalog entry scanning to a depth that would include a directory’s contents, I don’t think there’s a way to (automatically) exclude the directory and its contents. You could remove the entry that’s scanning its parent folder, then create new entries for each individual sibling folder that goes to the desired depth, but that might also be unrealistic depending on how many sibling folders there are and how often they change.

Or maybe I can somehow re-index Catalog after uncheking "donotindex" folder?

That’s worth a try. If you just used “Show Source in Catalog” on the folder, it’s probably still in the catalog under “Recent Objects”. To start fresh, quit Quicksilver, delete ~/Library/Caches/Quicksilver/Indexes, and launch Quicksilver again.

--
Rob McBroom

[Milan Kovac]

On Tuesday, May 5, 2020 at 1:29:54 PM UTC+2, Rob McBroom wrote:

On 4 May 2020, at 13:31, Milan Kovac wrote:

I did use "Show Source in Catalog" and I see parent folder that add this
"unwanted" folder ("donotindex").

Problem with solution (2.) to "open Contents tab and uncheck individual
items" is that it wont work (I try it)!
I can not just uncheck "donotindex" folder from Contents tab.
If I uncheck "donotindex" folder in Contents tab, Quicksilver will still
find items _inside_ "donotindex" folder!

The “Home” preset is set to a depth of 1, so it will add the folders in your home directory, but not their contents. Are you sure it’s not being added by another preset? Maybe the folder in question isn’t actually in your home directory and the folder structure above was just an example? 

You are right: folder structure is just an example. It is not my Home folder!

I have a problem with Synology shared folder. Problem is that Synology make folder "#recycle" which is in the root of shared folder (in my example I call this folder "donotindex") and beside this "#recycle" folder, in the root, I have bunch of other folders...

In QS, I put entire shared folder in "Custom" with Depth 3.

So yes, my problematic folder is NOT in "User" but rather in "Custom" catalogue (so "home" analogy can not be applied here) and I do need Depth of 3.

 

Is it possible to remove one folder, and all its subfiles and its
subfolders, somehow?

If you have a catalog entry scanning to a depth that would include a directory’s contents, I don’t think there’s a way to (automatically) exclude the directory and its contents. You could remove the entry that’s scanning its parent folder, then create new entries for each individual sibling folder that goes to the desired depth, but that might also be unrealistic depending on how many sibling folders there are and how often they change.

This is exactly my scenario. In shared folder, beside "#recycle" folder, I have dozen of other folders; and people keep adding, or deleting, them... 

Solution for this "#recycle" folder would be some explicit option in QS to exclude that particular folder from catalogue, and apparently right now, QS does not have such option.

Is it possible to ask developers for such option? (and where?) :)

btw

solution would be to reorganise folders like this:

/#recycler

/qsindex/ <- and put all folders here, and also put this folder in QS "Custom" catalogue.

This will skip indexing of #recycler folder

but it is pretty ugly solution: to add one more folder in hierarchy.

 

Or maybe I can somehow re-index Catalog after uncheking "donotindex" folder?

That’s worth a try. If you just used “Show Source in Catalog” on the folder, it’s probably still in the catalog under “Recent Objects”. To start fresh, quit Quicksilver, delete ~/Library/Caches/Quicksilver/Indexes, and launch Quicksilver again.

Thanks for hint!

 and thank for your time!

[Rob McBroom]

On 5 May 2020, at 9:24, Milan Kovac wrote:

> Is it possible to ask developers for such option? (and where?) :)

Yes. https://github.com/quicksilver/Quicksilver/issues

--
Rob McBroom

[1.61803]

On Tuesday, May 5, 2020 at 3:24:02 PM UTC+2, Milan Kovac wrote:

Solution for this "#recycle" folder would be some explicit option in QS to exclude that particular folder from catalogue, and apparently right now, QS does not have such option.

Maybe you could work around this by watching for changes in the your folder structure and write newly added folders to a File & Folder Scanner set to include Text Lines (paths in this case).

[Milan Kovac]

 I am not the only person that create a new folders in "shared folders" on Synology NAS so it is complicated to manually watch and add newly created folders to Catalog (it is not impossible, but it is not "nice solution" :) ).

Sorry, but I did not understand last part: "set to include Text Lines (paths in this case)". Can you explain this a little bit more? - is this some special option in "Custom" catalogue (set to include Text Lines)?

Thanks!

[1.61803]

On Thursday, May 7, 2020 at 1:17:46 PM UTC+2, Milan Kovac wrote:

I am not the only person that create a new folders in "shared folders" on Synology NAS so it is complicated to manually watch and add newly created folders to Catalog (it is not impossible, but it is not "nice solution" :) ).

Sorry, but I did not understand last part: "set to include Text Lines (paths in this case)". Can you explain this a little bit more? - is this some special option in "Custom" catalogue (set to include Text Lines)?

Since apparently Quicksilver doesn't have the option to exclude folders and its contents, you could at least automatically add specific paths to be scanned.

For that you would need a script that watches for changes in the root of your folder structure, i.e., paths being added by other users, regularly, and write these changes to a file.

Then you could set a custom source catalogue to File & Folder Scanner and select that file to use Text Lines, that is the paths. Select the custom source, next Show Info pane, then Source Options. Also adjust Rescan frequency accordingly.

I use a File & Folder Scanner set to Text Lines to include specific paths scattered in my file system, so I suppose this might work for you if you solve the other part. A web search for 'watch directory for changes mac' might help. Check also this and this.

HTH