Showing hidden files in Mac OS X
I use hidden files (such as .htaccess) extensively on my website, so I needed to be sure that they were included with my local backup copy. Mac OS X doesn’t show hidden files by default (it all gets a bit messy otherwise - although they are visible in a Terminal shell); however I found a tip which details the commands to run in order to show hidden files in the Finder (this can be run using a standard user account):
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
killall Finder
To return to the default display, run:
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE
killall Finder
I did find an application to display hidden files too but why bother if a couple of commands will do the trick? Even better, there is a workflow to show hidden files using Automator.
Posted: 16:27 on Tuesday 27 March 2007 under Useful software, OS X, Useful websites.
Comments: 1
RSS (for comments on this post only)Share This
Comments
Comment from Yassen
Time: Thursday 31 January 2008, 8:17
Thank you for this tip. It does work for me and I was able to delete some unnecessary .htaccess files from my desktop.
Regards!
Write a comment
Please note the rules for comments and the privacy policy and data protection notice. I'm sorry but, because not everyone sticks to the rules, I've had to implement some spam prevention measures - if you're experiencing difficulties leaving a comment, please let me know.