title: Can Mac OS X's Spotlight be configured to ignore certain file types?
body: <p>I've got bunches of auxiliary files that are generated by code and LaTeX documents that I dearly wish <em>would not</em> be suggested by SpotLight as potential search candidates. I'm not looking for <code>example.log</code>, I'm looking for <code>example.tex</code>!</p>
  
  <p>So can Spotlight be configured to ignore, say, all <code>.log</code> files?</p>
  
  <p>(I know, I know; I should just use QuickSilver instead…)</p>
  
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  <p>@<a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/41279/can-mac-os-xs-spotlight-be-configured-to-ignore-certain-file-types#41295">diciu</a> That's an interesting answer. The problem in my case is this:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>Figure out which importer handles your type of file</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>I'm not sure if my type of file is handled by any single importer? Since they've all got weird extensions (.aux, .glo, .out, whatever) I think it's improbable that there's an importer that's <em>trying</em> to index them. But because they're plain text they're being picked up as generic files. (Admittedly, I don't know much about Spotlight's indexing, so I might be completely wrong on this.)</p>
  
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  <p>@<a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/41279/can-mac-os-xs-spotlight-be-configured-to-ignore-certain-file-types#41342">diciu</a> again: <code>TextImporterDontImportList</code> sounds very promising; I'll head off and see if anything comes of it.</p>
  
  <p>Like you say, it does seem like the whole UTI system doesn't really allow <em>not</em> searching for something.</p>
  
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  <p>@<a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/41279/can-mac-os-xs-spotlight-be-configured-to-ignore-certain-file-types#41377">Raynet</a> Making the files invisible is a good idea actually, albeit relatively tedious for me to set up in the general sense. If worst comes to worst, I might give that a shot (but probably after exhausting other options such as QuickSilver). (Oh, and SetFile requires the Developer Tools, but I'm guessing everyone here has them installed anyway <code>:)</code> )</p>