What's mdimport ?

[Sarah Reichelt]

> > Can anyone tell me what mdimport is?  I'm using a Mac with OS X and a
> > utility called Activity Monitor to monitor my CPU usage, and mdimport
> > very often is in the 90% +  range.  What is this that is soaking up  my
> > CPU usage??
> 
> I think it's related to Spotlight.  The spike is probably while it's
> indexing.

Yes, it's Meta Data Import and is Spotlight doing it's indexing. I
haven't had any trouble with it but one of my colleagues has. Getting
more RAM helped (as it always does) but I think it might have been
because he had some constantly changing folders containing thousands
of text files.

> 
> Whether you use Spotlight or not, I know of no way to turn it off.
> 
> Welcome to Tiger.

Here is a shareware utility to turn Spotlight off & on
<http://www.fixamacsoftware.com/software/spot/index.html> but if you
are comfortable using Terminal, you can do it yourself
<http://rixstep.com/2/20050528,00.html> although this description
doesn't tell you how to turn it back on again if you change your mind!

Cheers,
Sarah