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Questions tagged [hidden-files]

also refereed to as dot-files and/or [.]files

Show Hidden Files option, accessible via folder-menubar -> View (see screenshot below) and/or Ctrl+H key-shortcut, also via terminal-commands:

Example:

tree -a

[.]files - folder/directory
├── folder
├── .[hidden]folder
├── .[hidden]textfile
└── textfile

The -a flag plots out all [.]files while used and can be combined with other flags as well. See: -la (screenshot below)

enter image description here

158 questions
182
votes
11 answers

Where is .bashrc?

I feel stupid asking, but I can't seem to find the answer to this anywhere. I'm trying to follow these instructions to edit my bash prompt, but there is no .bashrc in either my user directory (~/.bashrc), or in my home directory, or in the main file…
JeanSibelius
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161
votes
8 answers

How to show hidden folders in File Manager (Nautilus) on Ubuntu?

How do you show a hidden folder (whose name starts with .) in File Manager a.k.a. Nautilus on Ubuntu? I am somewhat new to Ubuntu and can't seem to find the "view" menu.
Strato1
  • 2,190
102
votes
6 answers

what is a .fuse_hidden file and why do they exist?

I have a folder where I transfer home videos from a camcorder to. I find two files in this folder that are not videos... .fuse_hidden0000002c00000001 .fuse_hidden0000002600000002 What are these files, and can they be safely deleted?
barrypicker
  • 1,293
64
votes
5 answers

rsync exclude hidden files doesnt work!

I’ve searched all over the internet and everybody suggests the same thing - that adding --exclude=´.*´ should exclude hidden files and folders from an rsync. It doesn’t. I´ve also tried adding a slash and/or double quotes eg. --exclude=¨\.*¨…
user289455
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57
votes
6 answers

How can I hide directories or files without changing their names?

The OCD in me wants directories I do not like the name of to be hidden since I do not interact with them directly. How can I hide directories without using the dot notation?
myusuf3
  • 35,659
49
votes
5 answers

What are dot-files?

I am having a hard time grasping what dot-files are or what they are for. Are they directories? How do I navigate to them?
RafLance
  • 697
35
votes
10 answers

Will ls always list the files that rm will remove?

Something I feel I ought to know for sure: if I ls , will rm remove exactly the same files that ls displayed? Are there any circumstances where rm could remove files that ls did not show? (This is in the 18.04 bash) Edit:…
B.Tanner
  • 2,685
34
votes
3 answers

"mv file" and now it's missing

In a terminal window, I typed: mv filename ..\.. [Note the wrong slash.] Now I can't find it. Gone. I ran some searches and looked through recoverable deleted files. Nothing. Poof. Serves me right for using a Windows machine right…
John
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32
votes
4 answers

How to show hidden files in Nautilus 3.20.3 Ubuntu 16.10?

How to show hidden files in Nautilus 3.20.3 Ubuntu 16.10?
user104140
30
votes
3 answers

How to show (or hide) a hidden file

I wanted to add classpath to my JDK. While searching a way to do it I noticed everyone open .profile file using terminal. But when I want to open and edit it with a text editor I couldn't see that file in Home folder. Can someone tell me why is…
samsri
  • 413
30
votes
4 answers

Open file dialog defaults to showing hidden files

My open file dialog is defaulting to showing hidden files, I have to press Ctrl-H to get to the files I want, but this is not saved across instances of the dialog. I can't find a settings panel to change this behaviour, including Nautilus…
Erik Youngren
  • 401
20
votes
1 answer

How to make bash stop tab autocompleting hidden directories

Most of the time, I don't need autocompletes for my hidden directories. In fact, that's the point of them being hidden! However, annoyingly, bash takes these directories into account when considering tab autocompletion. This is particularly…
Kristopher Micinski
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20
votes
4 answers

How to hide files with a specific extension

I have set of temp files created in my folder with .bak extensions. How can I make them hide by default in Ubuntu? I tried adding a .hidden file with *.bak as entry in the file, but that is not working. Any help is very appreciated...
james
  • 301
19
votes
3 answers

How to hide files and folders in Nautilus?

I want to hide, most of the folders in root (/) using Nautilus. Probably the only folders in / I want shown are /home and /tmp. In addition to hiding folders, I also want to hide two files: initrd.img and initrd.img.old. I find such a setup to be…
blade19899
  • 26,994
17
votes
1 answer

Hidden files are shown in Dash

I have several hidden files in a folder that are private and need to remain private. I do not mind people seeing what I do on my system but after I open one of these files I can find them through dash and I can even open them. Am I…
Rinzwind
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