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Hidden files [was: Reproducible bug]



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On Sun, Nov 12, 2017 at 12:26:40PM -0500, Cindy-Sue Causey wrote:

[...]

> Does "find" find hidden files without being specifically told how to
> do so? The other thing is that maybe you've just been phenomenally
> blessed to have no errors. That *could* happen.. :)

The secret about hidden files is... that there are no hidden
files [1] :-)

There's just this convention that "ls" (and most GUI "file
managers" don't show files bearing a name which starts with
"." (dot). There's an option for "ls" to show those files
anyway ("-a", think "all"), and the GUIs typically call that
"show hidden files" (in some reminiscence of DOS hidden files,
which were something completely different!), thus causing
confusion.

GUIs have seldom qualms about causing confusion, which is
a pity, and the damage is kind of done now :-(

Typically, files and directories you don't want to "see always",
like "." (aka "self"), ".." (aka parent) and configuration
files and directories are named starting with a dot.

And yes, find does find those files by default.

[1] In Unix-like operating systems, that is.

Cheers
- -- tomás
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