Apple - Sublime Text like fuzzy filesystem search for Mac OS X

Alfred ships with an example workflow called Dynamic File Search that does something similar to fuzzy searching:

https://www.alfredapp.com/blog/tips-and-tricks/how-to-get-the-results-you-want-in-alfred-every-time/

https://www.alfredforum.com/topic/11981-searching-in-files-in-a-specific-location/?do=findComment&comment=62957

Alfred searching through directories and filenames at the same time

To add it, click the [+] at the bottom of the Workflows preferences, and choose Examples > Dynamic File Search.

1. Type "ff" in Alfred to first select a search scope
2. Then type the name of the file you're searching for within that folder

More documentation on Alfred's file filter feature can be found here https://www.alfredapp.com/help/workflows/inputs/file-filter/

There is a kMDItemPath attribute, but it can't be used in queries. You can grep the output of mdfind though:

$ pp() { path="/${1%/*}/"; mdfind "name:${1##*/}" | grep -i "${path//\//.*\/}"; }
$ time pp desk/ante
/Library/Desktop Pictures/Antelope Canyon.jpg
0.365

Matching kMDItemFSName is often a lot slower:

$ time mdfind "kMDItemFSName=\"ante.*\"c" | grep -i '/desk.*/'
/Library/Desktop Pictures/Antelope Canyon.jpg
10.232

I tried creating a script filter like this in Alfred:

q="{query}"

shopt -s nocasematch

amp() {
  local o=${1//&/&}
  o=${o//</&lt;}
  printf %s "${o//>/&gt;}"
}

output='<?xml version="1.0"?>
<items>
'

while IFS= read -r l; do
  path=$(amp "$l")
  output+="<item>
<arg>$path</arg>
<title>$(amp "${l##*/}")</title>
<subtitle>$path</subtitle>
<icon type=\"fileicon\">$path</icon>
</item>
"
done < <(if [[ $q =~ .+/.+ ]]; then
  dir=${q%/*}
  mdfind "name:${q##*/}" | while IFS= read -r l; do
    [[ ${l%/*} = */${dir//\/*/}* ]] && echo "$l"
  done
else
  mdfind "kind:folder name:$q"
fi | head -n20)

echo "$output</items>
</xml>"

I couldn't get it to work relibaly though, and it often took multiple seconds to update the results.

You may try Findspot. Findspot supports these features

1. Fuzzy search like Sublime Text's Control-P
2. Full path search
3. Search as you type

Here is a screenshot of Findspot when using your example:

Actually, you can skip the slashes and you will still get the same result.