Two simple questions

Jerry McAllister jerrymc at clunix.cl.msu.edu
Sat Dec 24 08:29:08 PST 2005


> 
> Teilhard Knight wrote:
> > What is the command to see the hidden files and folders? And how to 
> > unhide them?
> > 
> > Teilhard.

Micah's response is correct, but just an additional comment.
In FreeBSD UNIX, there are really no 'hidden' files.   They are
all just files with names in a specific style - in most cases that
means they start with a dot (.).   They are no different than other
file names as far as UNIX is concerned.   They are no 'hidden' to
keep you from seeing them or doing things with them as in MS.

But, because most of the time you do not want to waste display time 
or space looking at those file names when you list files, many utilities 
such as ls do not show then by default - they skip over them.   In almost 
all cases, to get those utilities to show them in their listings, you 
just need to use a flag on the command - the -a flag in the case of ls.

> 
> You should specify if you mean at the command line or in knoqueror 
> (which you mentioned in another post).  From the command line use ls -a 
> or la in the default csh install.  In konqueror use view->show hidden files.
> 
> You cannot "unhide" a hidden dot-file without renaming it.  Renaming it 
> will make it impossible for the programs that use the file to find it.
> 
> HTH,
> Micah
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