OS X 10.5 Spotlight Kind different to Finder Kind for particular file (.dylib) despite app (SeaMonkey) removed

Question

in the distant past I installed SeaMonkey. There was a mistake in the apps Info.plist that inappropriately associated a number of file types with the app, in particular .dylib. The bug was recognised but no solution provided (see Bug 726488 - dylib shared libraries are associated with SeaMonkey on install)

    <dict>
<key>CFBundleTypeName</key>
<string>SeaMonkey Shared Library</string>
<key>CFBundleTypeRole</key>
<string>None</string>
<key>CFBundleTypeOSTypes</key>
<array>
<string>shlb</string>
</array>
<key>CFBundleTypeExtensions</key>
<array>
<string>shlb</string>
<string>dylib</string>
</array>
<key>CFBundleTypeIconFile</key>
<string>component.icns</string>

The association means that .dylib files would show as Kind "SeaMonkey Shared Library" in Finder and Spotlight (and associated SeaMonkey icon).

"Uninstalling" (there was no 'proper' uninstaller) SeaMonkey resulted in Finder recognising .dylib files correctly as "Mach-O dynamic library". However, now Spotlight recognises SOME .dylib files correctly but not others, depending I suppose on where Spotlight indexe's and permissions for folders/files, as opposed to the scope/process of an apps registration?

From the command line, is there a way to get Spotlight to index only files with kMDItemKind = "SeaMonkey Shared Library" systemwide so the files Kind appears as "Mach-O dynamic library"? Or is there a smart way to "reverse" the use of the Info.plist - there are other associations e.g., .plugins

Thanks idac

OS X 10.5.8

Answer 1

You can do two things:

1. Use RCDefaultApp control panel (http://www.rubicode.com/Software/RCDefaultApp/) to disassociate the extension:
   1. Install the panel, and open it
   2. Go to the Extensions tab
   3. Search the dylib extension, and set Terminal as the Default Application (that's the normal setting; you can remove the extension entirely, and it will have no associated icon because of that)
2. Alternatively, if you don't want to install RCDefaultApp, rebuild the Launch Services Database. For Mac OS X 10.5, you have to:
   1. Move to the trash the following files:
      1. /Library/Caches/com.apple.LaunchServices-0230.csstore
      2. /Library/Caches/com.apple.LaunchServices-023nnn.csstore where nnn is the user ID to be reset (for instance, 501 for the first user created in the system). Or all similar files, if you want to reset all accounts.
      3. /Library/Caches/com.apple.LaunchServices-0140.csstore and /Library/Caches/com.apple.LaunchServices-014nnn.csstore might be present, and need to be trashed as well, if you upgraded from Tiger.
   2. Restart your Mac. If the problem persists:
      1. Delete the ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.LaunchServices.plist file
      2. Repeat the steps above (the files in /Library/Caches will have been recreated)

For other Mac OS X versions, try the instructions in this page: http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/resetlaunchservices.html