MDSEARCH(1)

📦
version 4.24.7 · 27 versions
, in fedora 44

🎀 MDSEARCH 🎀

okay so bestie, you opened the manual page for mdsearch(1) — it lives in the User Commands section of the manual, and it is, and I say this with my whole chest, iconic. It's a client tool from the Samba suite that goes and does Spotlight searches on an SMB server. ✨

Pour yourself something, get comfy, we're going through every single flag together, no skimming, no skipping, we are doing this 💅

🌸 NAME 🌸

mdsearch — run Spotlight searches against an SMB server 🦋

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

mdfine {server} {sharename} {query} [-p, --path=STRING] [-L, --live]
 [-?|--help] [--usage] [-d|--debuglevel=DEBUGLEVEL] [--debug-stdout]
 [--configfile=CONFIGFILE] [--option=name=value]
 [-l|--log-basename=LOGFILEBASE] [--leak-report] [--leak-report-full]
 [-R|--name-resolve=NAME-RESOLVE-ORDER]
 [-O|--socket-options=SOCKETOPTIONS] [-m|--max-protocol=MAXPROTOCOL]
 [-n|--netbiosname=NETBIOSNAME] [--netbios-scope=SCOPE]
 [-W|--workgroup=WORKGROUP] [--realm=REALM]
 [-U|--user=[DOMAIN/]USERNAME[%PASSWORD]] [-N|--no-pass]
 [--password=STRING] [--pw-nt-hash] [-A|--authentication-file=FILE]
 [-P|--machine-pass] [--simple-bind-dn=DN]
 [--use-kerberos=desired|required|off] [--use-krb5-ccache=CCACHE]
 [--use-winbind-ccache] [--client-protection=sign|encrypt|off]
 [-V|--version]

yes bestie, the synopsis spells it mdfine — that is what the page says, character for character, and we do not touch it. the vibe is: type the tool name, then the three positional things, then whatever flags your heart desires. 🫶

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

This tool is part of the samba(1) suite. 💐

mdsearch is a simple utility to run Spotlight searches against an SMB server that runs the Spotlight mdssvc RPC service. that's it, that's the whole thing, it's a little search gremlin and it's perfect 🌈

🦋 OPTIONS 🦋

  • server — The SMB server name or IP address to connect to. who are we talking to, bestie, name them 📡
  • sharename — The name of a share on the server. which share are we rifling through 📂
  • query — The query expression syntax is a simplified form of filename globbing familiar to shell users. Queries have the following format:
attribute=="value"

For queries against a Samba server with Spotlight enabled using the Elasticsearch backend, the list of supported metadata attributes is given by the JSON attribute mapping file, typically installed at /usr/share/samba/mdssvc/elasticsearch_mappings.json 🌸

  • -p PATH, --path=PATH — Server side path to search, defaults to "/" 🗺️
  • -L, --live — Query remains running. it just. keeps going. she stays. 👑
  • -?|--help — Print a summary of command line options. 🙋
  • --usage — Display brief usage message. 📝
  • -d|--debuglevel=level — level is an integer from 0 to 10. The default value if this parameter is not specified is 1 for client applications.

The higher this value, the more detail will be logged to the log files about the activities of the server. At level 0, only critical errors and serious warnings will be logged. Level 1 is a reasonable level for day-to-day running - it generates a small amount of information about operations carried out.

Levels above 1 will generate considerable amounts of log data, and should only be used when investigating a problem. Levels above 3 are designed for use only by developers and generate HUGE amounts of log data, most of which is extremely cryptic.

Note that specifying this parameter here will override the log level parameter in the /etc/samba/smb.conf file. ⚠️
  • --debug-stdout — This will redirect debug output to STDOUT. By default all clients are logging to STDERR. 📤
  • --configfile=<configuration file> — The file specified contains the configuration details required by the client. The information in this file can be general for client and server or only provide client specific like options such as client smb encrypt. See /etc/samba/smb.conf for more information. The default configuration file name is determined at compile time. 🗂️
  • --option=<name>=<value> — Set the smb.conf(5) option "<name>" to value "<value>" from the command line. This overrides compiled-in defaults and options read from the configuration file. If a name or a value includes a space, wrap whole --option=name=value into quotes. 💬
  • -l|--log-basename=logdirectory — Base directory name for log/debug files. The extension ".progname" will be appended (e.g. log.smbclient, log.smbd, etc...). The log file is never removed by the client. 🧾
  • --leak-report — Enable talloc leak reporting on exit. 🕵️
  • --leak-report-full — Enable full talloc leak reporting on exit. 🔍
  • -V|--version — Prints the program version number. 🏷️
  • -U|--user=[DOMAIN\]USERNAME[%PASSWORD] — Sets the SMB username or username and password.

If %PASSWORD is not specified, the user will be prompted. The client will first check the USER environment variable (which is also permitted to also contain the password separated by a %), then the LOGNAME variable (which is not permitted to contain a password) and if either exists, the value is used. If these environmental variables are not found, the username found in a Kerberos Credentials cache may be used.

A third option is to use a credentials file which contains the plaintext of the username and password. This option is mainly provided for scripts where the admin does not wish to pass the credentials on the command line or via environment variables. If this method is used, make certain that the permissions on the file restrict access from unwanted users. See the -A for more details.

Be cautious about including passwords in scripts or passing user-supplied values onto the command line. For security it is better to let the Samba client tool ask for the password if needed, or obtain the password once with kinit.

While Samba will attempt to scrub the password from the process title (as seen in ps), this is after startup and so is subject to a race. 😬

  • -N|--no-pass — If specified, this parameter suppresses the normal password prompt from the client to the user. This is useful when accessing a service that does not require a password.

Unless a password is specified on the command line or this parameter is specified, the client will request a password.

If a password is specified on the command line and this option is also defined the password on the command line will be silently ignored and no password will be used. 🤐

  • --password — Specify the password on the commandline.
Be cautious about including passwords in scripts or passing user-supplied values onto the command line. For security it is better to let the Samba client tool ask for the password if needed, or obtain the password once with kinit.

If --password is not specified, the tool will check the PASSWD environment variable, followed by PASSWD_FD which is expected to contain an open file descriptor (FD) number.

Finally it will check PASSWD_FILE (containing a file path to be opened). The file should only contain the password. Make certain that the permissions on the file restrict access from unwanted users!

While Samba will attempt to scrub the password from the process title (as seen in ps), this is after startup and so is subject to a race. 😭

  • --pw-nt-hash — The supplied password is the NT hash. 🔐
  • -A|--authentication-file=filename — This option allows you to specify a file from which to read the username and password used in the connection. The format of the file is:
username = <value>
password = <value>
domain   = <value>
Make certain that the permissions on the file restrict access from unwanted users! 🚨
  • -P|--machine-pass — Use stored machine account password. 🤖
  • --simple-bind-dn=DN — DN to use for a simple bind. 🪢
  • --use-kerberos=desired|required|off — This parameter determines whether Samba client tools will try to authenticate using Kerberos. For Kerberos authentication you should use DNS names instead of IP addresses when connecting to a service. By default Samba client tools will try to use the default Kerberos credential cache (ccache). In case the ccache does not exist or -U|--user option was specified, clients will ask to enter a password and will obtain a Kerberos ticket (kinit) for you. If you want to use an alternative Kerberos credentical cache, use the --use-krb5-ccache option.
Note that specifying this parameter here will override the client use kerberos parameter in the /etc/samba/smb.conf file. ⚠️
  • --use-krb5-ccache=CCACHE — Specifies the credential cache location for Kerberos authentication.

This will enforce --use-kerberos=required. 💥

  • --use-winbind-ccache — Try to use the credential cache by winbind. 🧚
  • --client-protection=sign|encrypt|off — Sets the connection protection the client tool should use.
Note that specifying this parameter here will override the client protection parameter in the /etc/samba/smb.conf file. ⚠️

In case you need more fine grained control you can use: --option=clientsmbencrypt=OPTION, --option=clientipcsigning=OPTION, --option=clientsigning=OPTION. 🎛️

🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

okay now the fun part, actual queries, copy these, love these 🍓

Search all indexed metadata attributes, exact match:

'*=="Samba"'

Search all indexed metadata attributes, prefix match:

'*=="Samba*"'

Search by filename:

'kMDItemFSName=="Samba*"'

Search by date:

'kMDItemFSContentChangeDate<$time.iso(2018-10-01T10:00:00Z)'

Search files's content:

'kMDItemTextContent=="Samba*"'

Expressions:

kMDItemFSName=="Samba*"||kMDItemTextContent=="Tango*"'

💜 SEE ALSO 💜

go read the Apple docs bestie, that's where the lore lives 📚

👑 VERSION 👑

This man page is part of version 4.24.7 of the Samba suite. ⭐

🌸 AUTHOR 🌸

The original Samba software and related utilities were created by Andrew Tridgell. Samba is now developed by the Samba Team as an Open Source project similar to the way the Linux kernel is developed. 🫶

The mdsearch manpage was written by Ralph Boehme. 💖

and that's the whole page, bestie — we ate, no crumbs left. this is Samba 4.24.7, dated 09/09/2026, and the page you just read is MDSEARCH(1). go search something gorgeous. 💅✨🦋🎀💜

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