Dennis Wicks wrote: > Greetings; > > Back in the dim distant past I remember that one could create hidden or > "secret" file with Basic on DOS and at least early Windows (3.0). I was > never able to figure out where those files were. > > Any way, is there a way of doing this in linux? I know that some > commands/programs won't show .xx files by default, but that isn't the > same sort of thing as Basic did. > > Any body have an idea? > > TIA! > Dennis > > On a Linux system, there's no way to do this. In the early DOS days, on floppy disks, perhaps. I remember there were some weird copy protection schemes, using non-standard formatting, so it may be that someone figured out a 'feature' (bug?) of the FAT fs that allowed creating file names that DIR would refuse to display. With Linux/UNIX systems, *any* character except the forward slash can be used in a file/directory name (/ is "reserved" by the system as the path separator and can't show up in the actual name). Using 'ls -b' will display an octal representation of every character in the name. You can create names of white space only, including the backspace, and 'ls' will show something, including an 'empty' column position for that white space only name. You can use control characters as well. But, shell globbing will allow anyone to access the file, they won't need to know anything about the actual characters used. You could achieve some degree of extra obscurity by using a directory that already has lots of files in it, trying to hide the special name among all the others. Using the traditional hidden (dot) file name with this, in your home directory, might be the best bet. My home directory has become quite cluttered with dot files (182 of them - I probably need to clean some out;), so a 'special' name would probably be a bit difficult to spot. And people don't tend to use the -a or -A option very often. Ultimately, the only really hidden file is the one on the floppy/usb stick/etc. that you keep in your pocket or combination safe, not on your system. -- Bob McGowan
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