Is it possible to write an applescript which updates the
find-by-content index of a disk in Mac OS X 10.3, or is there some
other way to get the find-by-content index to be updated regularly
automatically?

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Clarification of Question by jpalme-ga on 16 Mar 2004 01:09 PST

A negative answer is also an answer if I ask for something which does
not exist! So thank you very much!

Hi there,

Unfortunately, there's nothing in the Finder's dictionary to allow
applescript to trigger a folder or volume's indexing. Apple's moved to
'automatic' indexing in 10.3. You can no longer schedule index
updates, they just happen right before you search any particular
directory or volume. As you've no doubt noticed, this means that you
sometimes encounter a delay prior to being able to search.

There does not appear to be a way to trigger ContentIndexing.app from
the command line. If there were, you could use cron. Potential
alternatives are to use some other find-by-content solution. Apple's
system is known to be buggy and only indexes the first 2,000 words of
each file.

More info on apple's 10.3 find-by-content system:
http://developer.apple.com/documentation/ReleaseNotes/Carbon/FindbyContent.html
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106986

Otherchoices: DevonThing, BBEdit, egrep (command line, graphical
interfaces available on versiontracker)

Hope this is helpful!