macOS Automatically extracting "Get Info" descriptions

[Doctor Q]

Is there a Terminal command, an Applescript or Automator action, or even a Mac app that can extract the "Get Info" descriptions or other metadata from a set of Finder files?

 

[chown33]

The 'mdls' command can do this. It's basically the command-line interface to all Spotlight metadata retrieval.

Some metadata (owner, permissions, locked, etc.) is also available via commands 'ls', 'xattr'.

If you want to search for a file by its metadata, then 'mdfind' is the way to go.

 

[Doctor Q]

Thanks! It's just what I needed.

 

[chown33]

Here's a giant list of attribute names (keys) you can use to get system-maintained metadata:
https://developer.apple.com/library...adataAttributesRef/Reference/CommonAttrs.html

Apps can add their own metadata keys, although I don't know any that specifically do.

For more info, google search terms:
spotlight metadata attributes