Is there a way to exclude a folder from Spotlight indexing in command line?

[x0ssrk]

Hi,
I want to exclude a folder from Spotlight indexing. I know I can add it to the 'Privacy' list in System Preferences - Spotlight but I want to know if there's some other way to do this.

I searched and tried to create a file named '.metadata_never_index' in the excluded folder but it did not work on Big Sur. I don't want to add the suffix '.noindex' to folders either...

 

[frou]

I think all the Spotlight-related commands are prefixed "md", so if it's possible it will likely be mentioned in the documentation/man-pages for one of the commands:

• mdimport
• mdls
• mddiagnose
• mdfind
• mdutil

 

[gilby101]

The exclusions for each volume are in /Volumes/<vol name>/.Spotlight-V100/VolumeConfiguration.plist
This is the same as with Catalina. But I wouldn't mess with it!