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.hidden for user folders
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seb2
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Nov 28, 2001, 06:13 PM
 
hi everybody,

since installing xfree86, my home folder is cluttered with stuff. when working in the terminal, i don't really care, but when i'm in the finder, i don't want to see that.

so i thought, well great, just use /.hidden to add the names of files i don't want to see. didn't work, tried absolute paths and just plain file names. i also tried creating ~/.hidden -- didn't work, either.
(yes, i did a finder restart after every change)

any ideas how to hide certain files in the finder?
     
The DJ
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Nov 28, 2001, 06:59 PM
 
Originally posted by seb2:
<STRONG>hi everybody,

since installing xfree86, my home folder is cluttered with stuff. when working in the terminal, i don't really care, but when i'm in the finder, i don't want to see that.

so i thought, well great, just use /.hidden to add the names of files i don't want to see. didn't work, tried absolute paths and just plain file names. i also tried creating ~/.hidden -- didn't work, either.
(yes, i did a finder restart after every change)

any ideas how to hide certain files in the finder?</STRONG>
As far as i know, it only works at the root level of your system. It is actually a nasty hack by apple to create a clear finder (to the user), yet to allow the BSD subsystem (UNIX) to stay compatible with other BSD variants.

You can of course use something like FileBuddy to set the invisible flag on folders and files. The reason Apple hasn't done this, is that you cannot set that flag for Unix aliasses. So they made a file in which they specified some filenames (UNIX aliasses) which are present at root, and the finder looks for this file at the root level and then doesn't display them.

DJ

DJ

Derk-Jan Hartman, Student of the University Twente (NL), developer of VLC media player
     
seb2  (op)
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Nov 28, 2001, 07:42 PM
 
(cough) why didn't i think of that? guess i've used the terminal too much...
thanks for the idea, works great!

still: is there a way to do this from the terminal? any ideas?
     
rob7erto
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Join Date: Apr 2001
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Nov 28, 2001, 08:16 PM
 
Originally posted by The DJ:
<STRONG>

As far as i know, it only works at the root level of your system. It is actually a nasty hack by apple to create a clear finder (to the user), yet to allow the BSD subsystem (UNIX) to stay compatible with other BSD variants.

DJ</STRONG>
I deleted the .hidden file because I'm dumb and didn't realize what it did. I put another copy of the .hidden file back in the root directory of my drive, but even after rebooting, it won't seem to work. All those hidden files remain visible.

Any ideas how to make them hidden again?
     
seb2  (op)
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Nov 28, 2001, 09:20 PM
 
is it owned by root with read priviliges for ugo?
     
The DJ
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Nov 28, 2001, 10:11 PM
 
This is what it should be

-r--r--r-- 1 root wheel 152 Sep 2 22:53 .hidden

contents

automount
bin
cores
Desktop DB
Desktop DF
Desktop Folder
dev
etc
lost+found
mach
mach_kernel
mach.sym
private
sbin
tmp
Trash
usr
var
VM Storage
Volumes

[ 11-28-2001: Message edited by: The DJ ]

Derk-Jan Hartman, Student of the University Twente (NL), developer of VLC media player
     
rgoer
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Nov 29, 2001, 01:50 AM
 
Originally posted by seb2:
<STRONG>still: is there a way to do this from the terminal? any ideas?</STRONG>
Assuming you have the developer tools installed, in /Developer/Tools/ there is a utility called SetFile. If you ln -s this utility into your /usr/bin directory, you will be able to run it from anywhere... (or you could just add /Developer/Tools to your $path)

For the practical application, let's say you want to hide the GNUStep folder which is in your home directory from the finder. Here you go:

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1"face="Geneva, Verdana, Arial">code:</font><HR><pre><font size=1 face=courier>sudo SetFile -a V ~/GNUStep</font>[/code]

a relaunch of the Finder application is now all that stands between you and a hidden GNUStep folder.
Even Einstein feared the power of "spooky action at a distance"
     
   
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