MDWORKER/SPOTLIGHT constant indexing

Ever since my upgrade to Snow Leopard, my CPU has been in constant overdrive mode for days now.
Spotlight is telling me that it is indexing my hard drive, but even after several days it is still saying "Estimating indexing time".
Here's what console says:
+08/09/2009 16:31:37 mdworker[1370] (Normal) Import: Spotlight giving up on importing file /Users/Matt/Library/Mail/Mailboxes/ Stored Emails/Received.mbox/Messages/35901.emlx after 294.11 seconds, 294.109 seconds of which was spent in the Spotlight importer plugin.+
+08/09/2009 16:31:37 com.apple.launchd[1] (0x1006054b0.mach_init.mdworker[1370]) Exited with exit code: 75+
+08/09/2009 16:36:47 mdworker[1385] (Normal) Import: Spotlight giving up on importing file /Users/Matt/Library/Mail/Mailboxes/ Stored Emails/Received.mbox/Messages/35903.emlx after 286.953 seconds, 286.952 seconds of which was spent in the Spotlight importer plugin.+
+08/09/2009 16:36:47 com.apple.launchd[1] (0x1006054b0.mach_init.mdworker[1385]) Exited with exit code: 75+
Looks as if it is trying to import every single message, but without success.
Any idea why the mbox file is giving Spotlight such a hard time?
(Excluding and including the folder from Spotlight Privacy settings has not fixed the problem.)
Thanks for your help!

My problem did finally disappear when in *Address Book* I removed the smart group looking for cards that are not member of any group. No idea where the link to MDWORKER is - but it worked.

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  • Spotlight not indexing after hard drive replaced

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  • Spotlight trouble indexing mail in Lion

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    Birds-iMac:~ traj$ sudo opensnoop -n mdworker
    Password:
      UID    PID COMM          FD PATH                
       89   2110 mdworker       3 /dev/dtracehelper   
      501   2111 mdworker       3 /dev/dtracehelper   
       89   2110 mdworker       3 /dev/autofs_nowait  
       89   2110 mdworker      -1 /var/empty/.CFUserTextEncoding
       89   2110 mdworker       3 /dev/autofs_nowait  
       89   2110 mdworker      -1 /var/empty/.CFUserTextEncoding
       89   2110 mdworker       4 /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/Metadata.framework /Versions/A/Support
       89   2110 mdworker       4 /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/Metadata.framework /Versions/A/Support/mdworker
       89   2110 mdworker       4 /.vol/16777219/29166387/mdworker/..namedfork/rsrc
       89   2110 mdworker       4 /.vol/16777219/29166387/mdworker/..namedfork/rsrc
       89   2110 mdworker       4 /.vol/16777219/29166387/mdworker/..namedfork/rsrc
       89   2110 mdworker      -1 /Library/Sandbox/Profiles/mdworker-bundle.sb
       89   2110 mdworker      -1 /System/Library/Sandbox/Profiles/mdworker-bundle.sb
       89   2110 mdworker       4 /usr/share/sandbox/mdworker-bundle.sb
       89   2110 mdworker       5 /var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n00000b400002s/C//sandbox-cache.db
       89   2110 mdworker       4 /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/Metadata.framework
      501   2111 mdworker       3 /dev/autofs_nowait  
      501   2111 mdworker       4 /Users/traj/.CFUserTextEncoding
      501   2111 mdworker       4 /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/Metadata.framework /Versions/A/Support
      501   2111 mdworker       4 /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/Metadata.framework /Versions/A/Support/mdworker
      501   2111 mdworker       3 /dev/autofs_nowait  
      501   2111 mdworker       4 /Users/traj/.CFUserTextEncoding
      501   2111 mdworker       4 /.vol/16777219/29166387/mdworker/..namedfork/rsrc
      501   2111 mdworker       4 /.vol/16777219/29166387/mdworker/..namedfork/rsrc
      501   2111 mdworker       4 /.vol/16777219/29166387/mdworker/..namedfork/rsrc
      501   2111 mdworker      -1 /Library/Sandbox/Profiles/mdworker-bundle.sb
      501   2111 mdworker      -1 /System/Library/Sandbox/Profiles/mdworker-bundle.sb
      501   2111 mdworker       4 /usr/share/sandbox/mdworker-bundle.sb
      501   2111 mdworker       5 /var/folders/z2/mf6zt6m16cb_ztb6pmxmtn7m0000gn/C//sandbox-cache.db
      501   2111 mdworker       4 /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/Metadata.framework
       89   2110 mdworker       4 /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/Metadata.framework /Resources
       89   2110 mdworker       4 /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/Metadata.framework /Resources/English.lproj
       89   2110 mdworker      -1 /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/Metadata.framework /Resources/Base.lproj
       89   2110 mdworker       4 /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/Metadata.framework /Resources/schema.plist
       89   2110 mdworker       4 /usr/share/icu/icudt49l.dat
       89   2110 mdworker       4 /Library/Spotlight  
       89   2110 mdworker       4 /Library/Spotlight  
       89   2110 mdworker      -1 /Library/Spotlight/en.lproj
       89   2110 mdworker      -1 /Library/Spotlight/Base.lproj
       89   2110 mdworker       4 /Library/Spotlight/GBSpotlightImporter.mdimporter
       89   2110 mdworker       4 /Library/Spotlight/GBSpotlightImporter.mdimporter/Contents
       89   2110 mdworker       4 /Library/Spotlight/GBSpotlightImporter.mdimporter/Contents/Info.plist
       89   2110 mdworker       4 /Library/Spotlight/GBSpotlightImporter.mdimporter/Contents/MacOS/GBSpotlightImp orter
       89   2110 mdworker       4 /Library/Spotlight/GBSpotlightImporter.mdimporter/Contents/Resources
       89   2110 mdworker       4 /Library/Spotlight/GBSpotlightImporter.mdimporter/Contents/Resources
       89   2110 mdworker       4 /Library/Spotlight/GBSpotlightImporter.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/English.lp roj
       89   2110 mdworker      -1 /Library/Spotlight/GBSpotlightImporter.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/Base.lproj
       89   2110 mdworker       4 /Library/Spotlight/GBSpotlightImporter.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/schema.xml
       89   2110 mdworker       4 /Library/Spotlight/GBSpotlightImporter.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/English.lp roj/schema.strings
       89   2110 mdworker       4 /Library/Spotlight/GBSpotlightImporter.mdimporter/Contents/MacOS/GBSpotlightImp orter
       89   2110 mdworker       5 /Library/Spotlight/GBSpotlightImporter.mdimporter/Contents/MacOS/GBSpotlightImp orter
       89   2110 mdworker       4 /var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n00000b400002s/C//mds/mds.lock
       89   2110 mdworker       6 /var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n00000b400002s/C//mds/mdsObject.db_
       89   2110 mdworker       7 /private/var/db/mds/system/mdsObject.db
       89   2110 mdworker       6 /var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n00000b400002s/C//mds/mdsDirectory.db_
       89   2110 mdworker       7 /private/var/db/mds/system/mdsDirectory.db
       89   2110 mdworker       6 /var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n00000b400002s/C//mds/mdsObject.db
       89   2110 mdworker       6 /System/Library/Security
       89   2110 mdworker      -1 /var/empty/Library/Security
       89   2110 mdworker       4 /var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n00000b400002s/C//mds/mdsDirectory.db
       89   2110 mdworker       4 /System/Library/Keychains/EVRoots.plist
       89   2110 mdworker       4 /etc/localtime      
       89   2110 mdworker       4 /Library/Spotlight/GBSpotlightImporter.mdimporter/Contents/Info.plist
       89   2110 mdworker       4 /Library/Spotlight/GBSpotlightImporter.mdimporter/Contents/MacOS/GBSpotlightImp orter
      501   2111 mdworker       4 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Application.mdimporter/Contents/version.plist
      501   2111 mdworker      -1 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Application.mdimporter/Contents/_CodeSignature/Co deEntitlements
      501   2111 mdworker      -1 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Application.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/English .lproj
      501   2111 mdworker      -1 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Application.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/English .lproj/English.lproj
      501   2111 mdworker      -1 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Application.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/Base.lp roj/English.lproj
      501   2111 mdworker       4 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter
      501   2111 mdworker       4 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents
      501   2111 mdworker       4 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Info.plist
      501   2111 mdworker       4 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/MacOS/Archives
      501   2111 mdworker       4 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources
      501   2111 mdworker       4 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources
      501   2111 mdworker       4 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/English.lp roj
      501   2111 mdworker      -1 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/Base.lproj
      501   2111 mdworker       4 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/MacOS/Archives
      501   2111 mdworker       5 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/MacOS/Archives
      501   2111 mdworker       4 /Users/traj/Library/Preferences/com.apple.security.revocation.plist
      501   2111 mdworker       4 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/tr.lproj
      501   2111 mdworker       4 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/uk.lproj
      501   2111 mdworker       4 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/zh_CN.lpro j
      501   2111 mdworker       4 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/zh_TW.lpro j
      501   2111 mdworker       4 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/version.plist
      501   2111 mdworker      -1 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/_CodeSignature/CodeE ntitlements
      501   2111 mdworker       4 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/Dutch.lpro j
      501   2111 mdworker      -1 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/English.lp roj/Dutch.lproj
      501   2111 mdworker      -1 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/Base.lproj /Dutch.lproj
      501   2111 mdworker       4 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/English.lp roj
      501   2111 mdworker      -1 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/English.lp roj/English.lproj
      501   2111 mdworker      -1 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/Base.lproj /English.lproj
      501   2111 mdworker       4 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/French.lpr oj
      501   2111 mdworker      -1 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/English.lp roj/French.lproj
      501   2111 mdworker      -1 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/Base.lproj /French.lproj
      501   2111 mdworker       4 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/German.lpr oj
      501   2111 mdworker      -1 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/English.lp roj/German.lproj
      501   2111 mdworker      -1 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/Base.lproj /German.lproj
      501   2111 mdworker       4 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/Italian.lp roj
      501   2111 mdworker      -1 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/English.lp roj/Italian.lproj
      501   2111 mdworker      -1 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/Base.lproj /Italian.lproj
      501   2111 mdworker       4 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/Japanese.l proj
      501   2111 mdworker      -1 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/English.lp roj/Japanese.lproj
      501   2111 mdworker      -1 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/Base.lproj /Japanese.lproj
      501   2111 mdworker       4 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/Spanish.lp roj
      501   2111 mdworker      -1 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/English.lp roj/Spanish.lproj
      501   2111 mdworker      -1 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/Base.lproj /Spanish.lproj
      501   2111 mdworker       4 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/ar.lproj
      501   2111 mdworker      -1 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/English.lp roj/ar.lproj
      501   2111 mdworker      -1 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/Base.lproj /ar.lproj
      501   2111 mdworker       4 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/ca.lproj
      501   2111 mdworker      -1 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/English.lp roj/ca.lproj
      501   2111 mdworker      -1 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/Base.lproj /ca.lproj
      501   2111 mdworker       4 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/cs.lproj
      501   2111 mdworker      -1 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/English.lp roj/cs.lproj
      501   2111 mdworker      -1

  • Force Spotlight to Index a FW HDD

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  • Stop Spotlight from indexing new drives

    I know how to block a drive in Spotlight's privacy settings.
    What I'm looking for is a way to stop Spotlight from indexing a drive every time I plug one in.  I'm often connecting external drives for work & spotlight immediatley starts to index & I go in and add it to the blocked list in Spotlight> Privacy.
    Is there a way to just have Spotlight NOT try to index a new drive?

    Sorry, I missed that part.
    Try this, add this file to the external drive.
    touch /Volumes/name of the external drive/.metadata_never_index
    This will add a file called .metadata_never_index to the root of that drive.
    You can also disable spotlight
    sudo mdutil -a -i off
    To re-enable Spotlight:
    sudo mdutil -a -i on

  • How to stop Spotlight from indexing backup drives

    Is there any way to stop Spotlight from indexing backup drives?
    Thanks

    Yes, in Spotlight preferences there is an option to do this. I'm not on my Mac now, so I forget exactly where in Spotlight preferences it is. I believe there is a second tab that you have to click on, then click the "+" sign to add items to Exclude. Just add your backup drive.

  • IPhoto/Spotlight not indexing SOLUTION

    For those iPhoto 6 users whoose comments and keywords not being indexed by Spotlight, here is the solution to your problem!
    If you are getting * Parsing file: '~/Pictures/iPhoto Library/AlbumData.xml'
    ERROR: syntax error (<key>PhotoCount</key>) when you try to manually index your iPhoto library with mdimport, this will solve your problem!
    You can only have single-line comments on your photos:
    - Create a smart album: "Comments... contains... [option][return]"
    Note: press option+return with your keyboard... the box will appear blank
    - The smart album should become populated with photos where you entered a comment containing a character return
    - Click the ( i ) in the bottom left-hand corner to draw up the info for each file, and manually remove the character break until your smart alum is empty OR go to Photos -> Batch Change and enter a new comment. Make sure that "append" is UNCHECKED -- This will overwrite all of the comments.
    Now, you must also make sure you only have single-line comments on your rolls:
    - From the iPhoto Library, go to View -> Sort Photos -> By Film Roll
    - Hold the Apple (command) key, and click the drop down triangle once or twice (until all are collapsed)
    - Manually examine each roll and make sure that the comments (if any) are all on one line.
    Note: If the comments are all on one line, the whole line will be visible in the collapsed view under the Film Roll name
    Quit iPhoto
    Open Terminal (in the Utilities folder)
    - Type mdimport -f ~/Pictures and hit return
    - After some time, a message should come up saying:
    * Parsing file: '~/Pictures/iPhoto Library/AlbumData.xml'
    As long as there is not an error message underneath, this is good!
    - When the command has finished running and you're at a blank prompt again, quit Terminal
    Open iPhoto
    - Click iPhoto in the menu bar, and go to Preferences
    - Click the Keywords tab
    - Click the "+" and create a new keyword called Spotlight
    - Close out of iPhoto preferences
    - From the iPhoto Library, select all of the photos (Edit -> Select All)
    - Get info on the files (Photos -> Get Info)
    - Select the Keywords tab
    - CHECK the box that says [Spotlight] *THIS MIGHT TAKE A WHILE
    - UNCHECK the box that says [Spotlight] * THIS MIGHT TAKE A WHILE
    Note: This forces all of the pictures to be updated in the database
    - Quit iPhoto
    Search for your comments and keywords with Spotlight

    Can I ask, does this need to be done every time you add photos to iPhoto, or is this a one-off trick to get Spotlight to look at iPhoto keywords in the first place?
    My first experience with iPhoto is iPhoto6 so I don't have any baggage that I am bringing from earlier copies of iPhoto. I've imported in 1500 photos and am working my way through tagging them with keywords and am hoping that spotlight will index them. Is this bug related to keywords applied in older versions of iPhoto, or does the issue manifest itself even on a brand new library? Are Apple looking to patch iPhoto / Spotlight to resolve this?
    Thanks.
    Graham

  • IPhoto/Spotlight not indexing SOLUTION *edit

    For those iPhoto 6 users whoose comments and keywords not being indexed by Spotlight, here is the solution to your problem!
    If you are getting * Parsing file: '~/Pictures/iPhoto Library/AlbumData.xml'
    ERROR: syntax error (<key>PhotoCount</key>) when you try to manually index your iPhoto library with mdimport, this will solve your problem!
    You can only have single-line comments on your photos:
    - Create a smart album: "Comments... contains... [option][return]"
    Note: press option+return with your keyboard... the box will appear blank
    - The smart album should become populated with photos where you entered a comment containing a character return
    - Click the ( i ) in the bottom left-hand corner to draw up the info for each file, and manually remove the character break until your smart alum is empty OR go to Photos -> Batch Change and enter a new comment. Make sure that "append" is UNCHECKED -- This will overwrite all of the comments.
    Now, you must also make sure you only have single-line comments on your rolls:
    - From the iPhoto Library, go to View -> Sort Photos -> By Film Roll
    - Hold the Apple (command) key, and click the drop down triangle once or twice (until all are collapsed)
    - Manually examine each roll and make sure that the comments (if any) are all on one line.
    Note: If the comments are all on one line, the whole line will be visible in the collapsed view under the Film Roll name
    Quit iPhoto
    Open Terminal (in the Utilities folder)
    - Type mdimport -f ~/Pictures and hit return
    - After some time, a message should come up saying:
    * Parsing file: '~/Pictures/iPhoto Library/AlbumData.xml'
    As long as there is not an error message underneath, this is good!
    - When the command has finished running and you're at a blank prompt again, quit Terminal
    Open iPhoto
    - Click iPhoto in the menu bar, and go to Preferences
    - Click the Keywords tab
    - Click the "+" and create a new keyword called Spotlight
    - Close out of iPhoto preferences
    - From the iPhoto Library, select all of the photos (Edit -> Select All)
    - Get info on the files (Photos -> Get Info)
    - Select the Keywords tab
    - CHECK the box that says [Spotlight] *THIS MIGHT TAKE A WHILE
    - UNCHECK the box that says [Spotlight] * THIS MIGHT TAKE A WHILE
    Note: This forces all of the pictures to be updated in the database
    - Quit iPhoto
    Search for your comments and keywords with Spotlight

    Can I ask, does this need to be done every time you add photos to iPhoto, or is this a one-off trick to get Spotlight to look at iPhoto keywords in the first place?
    My first experience with iPhoto is iPhoto6 so I don't have any baggage that I am bringing from earlier copies of iPhoto. I've imported in 1500 photos and am working my way through tagging them with keywords and am hoping that spotlight will index them. Is this bug related to keywords applied in older versions of iPhoto, or does the issue manifest itself even on a brand new library? Are Apple looking to patch iPhoto / Spotlight to resolve this?
    Thanks.
    Graham

  • Spotlight is indexing but what? And why does it want access to the web?

    I can see Spotlight is indexing, it spends several hours a day doing this, every day.
    Where can i find more details like previous OS X versions? Which drive, how much time left etc.
    Console was no help, any suggestions welcome.
    Also, with "Spotlight Suggestions" and "Bing Web Searches" disabled in the Spotlight Search Results references, why is the process "Spotlight Web Content" still trying to access the web several times a day? I am not using Spotlight when this happens nor am i trying to preview any files that have web content in them. Most commonly it tries to connect to static.amazon.com on the http port.

    In System Preferences > Spotlight > Search Results, if you have "Bookmarks and History" checked, then the "Spotlight Web Content" background process will crawl any web page that you recently visited to index its keywords. Uncheck that to turn it off.

  • Convincing spotlight to index other file types

    I have a large number of LaTeX documents on my computer, but Spotlight seems unwilling to index them. How can I convince spotlight to go ahead and index/search files with a .tex extension just like it would any other ASCII text file?
    Details: LaTeX source code is standard ASCII text, but the files have a ".tex" extension. These files never seem to show up in Spotlight searches, even if I search for terms that I'm certain are included. I'm guessing that Spotlight sees the extension, says "I don't know how to index files of this type" and moves on. How can I tell it to index (and then subsequently search) these files just like normal .txt files? (I'd probably like to do the same with other "source code" file extensions too...) Thanks!

    I found that Spotlight would index thousands of my old LaTeX files if I dragged them to another location and then dragged them back again. Unfortunately, I found that just moving the folders they were in was not sufficient.
    This move added the metadata "public.plain-text" to all the .tex files, even though, since OS X 10.4, cp amd mv is supposed to preserving metadata and forks (according the man pages of CpMac and MvMac).
    I did this after I had modified TeXShop's Info.plist by adding the public.plain-text string to the UTTypeConformsTo key. This is described in the Link: [macosxhints: Add Quick Look support for certain file formats|http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20071028184428583] and by Tristan Hubsch in the Link: [Apple Discussion Topic: How to Spotlight (and QuickView) Hidden and Programming Files?|http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6880380]. I don't know if this is necessary for the change.

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