Remove spotlight icon from menu bar.

remove_sl_icon.sh

cd /System/Library/CoreServices/Spotlight.app/Contents/MacOS
sudo cp Spotlight Spotlight.bak
sudo perl -pi -e 's|(\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x47\x40\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00)\x42\x40(\x00\x00\x80\x3f\x00\x00\x70\x42)|$1\x00\x00$2|sg' Spotlight
cmp -l Spotlight Spotlight.bak 
sudo codesign -f -s - Spotlight
sudo killall Spotlight

I need SIP disabled for this right?

@Mancerrss, yes, SIP must be disabled to modify the contents of /System. Also, see here for an explanation of why sudo mount -uw / is needed once booted on Catalina and later: https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/375611

does this disable Spotlight completely or just remove the icon from the menubar? I'd like only to remove the icon but continue using Spotlight as I only ever activate it via keyboard shortcut (Cmd+Space).

@dmattera, the latter; Spotlight remains functional.

works like a charm

if having issues on catalina:::

disable system integrity protection, then reboot

then unmount the drive

sudo mount -uw /

then run the above

@steveaolsen That was already mentioned in the comments before you 🙂

Catalina 10.15.7 work ok