output_spotlight_comments.rb

#!/usr/bin/env ruby

IGNORABLE = ["script", "Icon\r", "SPOTLIGHT_TAGS"]

files = Dir["*"] - IGNORABLE

def spotlight_cmd(file)
  `xattr -p com.apple.metadata:kMDItemFinderComment "#{file}"`.gsub("\n", " ")
end

def hex_sequence_to_s(hex_seq)
  hex_seq.split(" ").map do |hex|
    hex.to_i(16).chr
  end.join
end

def spotlight_comment_portion(s)
  s.gsub(/bplist[^&]+(.*)[\b].*/, "\\1")
end

def spotlight_comments_for(file)
  spotlight_comment_portion(hex_sequence_to_s(spotlight_cmd(file)))
end

if __FILE__ == $0
  files.each do |f|
#    p [:file, f]
    puts("%s -> %s" % [f, spotlight_comments_for(f)])
  end
end