Spotlight indexes on read-only media

Here’s a way to let spotlight do a full content index of a read only CD. It can even persist across uses :)

#!/bin/sh
# pass in the name of the r/o volume, e.g. DiskWarriorCD
# this is proof of concept only. seriously :)
if [ ! $1 ] ; then echo "supply a volume name" ; exit 1 ; fi
vol=$1
rodevpath=`df | grep "$vol" | awk '{print $1}'`
fspath=`df | grep "$vol" | awk '{print $6}'`
sudo hdiutil unmount $rodevpath
sudo hdiutil mount $rodevpath -shadow "/tmp/$vol.shadow"
sudo mdutil -i on $fspath
sudo mdutil -s $fspath

I’m then able to return documents on the CD in my spotlight searches, create new files on the CD (in the shadow file) that are also indexed, etc…

{7} andre@idio [~] % rwmount Warrior
"disk2s1s3" unmounted successfully.
/dev/disk3                                              /Volumes/DiskWarriorCD
/Volumes/DiskWarriorCD:
        Indexing enabled for volume.
/Volumes/DiskWarriorCD:
        Status: Indexing Enabled
{8} andre@idio [~] % echo "nice marmot" > /Volumes/DiskWarriorCD/motd.txt
{9} andre@idio [~] % mdfind marmot
/Volumes/DiskWarriorCD/motd.txt
{10} andre@idio [~] % mdfind 'rebuild' -onlyin /Volumes/DiskWarriorCD
/Volumes/DiskWarriorCD/Applications/Utilities/DiskWarrior CD Extras/DiskWarrior 
AppleScripts/Rebuild Directory
/Volumes/DiskWarriorCD/Applications/Utilities/DiskWarrior Manual.pdf
/Volumes/DiskWarriorCD/Applications/Utilities/DiskWarrior Read Me.rtf
/Volumes/DiskWarriorCD/Applications/Utilities/Quick Start Manual.rtf
/Volumes/DiskWarriorCD/Applications/Utilities/DiskWarrior CD Extras/DiskWarrior 
3 Brochure.pdf
/Volumes/DiskWarriorCD/Applications/Utilities/DiskWarrior CD Extras/DiskWarrior 
AppleScripts/DiskWarrior and AppleScripts.rtf
{11} andre@idio [~] % mount
/dev/disk0s3 on / (local, journaled)
devfs on /dev (local)
fdesc on /dev (union)
 on /.vol
/dev/disk1s3 on /Volumes/Bay (local, journaled)
automount -nsl [180] on /Network (automounted)
automount -fstab [184] on /automount/Servers (automounted)
automount -static [184] on /automount/static (automounted)
/dev/disk3 on /Volumes/DiskWarriorCD (local, nodev, nosuid)

( physical CD is at disk2 )
( click eject button of DiskWarriorCD in Finder to unmount disk3)

{13} andre@idio [~] % hdiutil eject /dev/disk2
"disk2" unmounted.
"disk2" ejected.

(re-insert)

{15} andre@idio [~] % rwmount Warrior
"disk2s1s3" unmounted successfully.
/dev/disk3                                              /Volumes/DiskWarriorCD
/Volumes/DiskWarriorCD:
        Indexing enabled for volume.
/Volumes/DiskWarriorCD:
        Status: Indexing Enabled
{16} andre@idio [~] % mdfind marmot
/Volumes/DiskWarriorCD/motd.txt

fun :)