A Mac OS X/UNIX newbie asked me if there was any way to show all the hidden files in Mac OS X so that he could browse the UNIX directories when using the Finder. Since there may be others out there that have the same need/want I thought I would share an easy way to show and then hide all hidden files within the Finder.
To show hidden files: open the Terminal application and type: defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE. In order for the Finder to recognize the change, restart the Finder by then typing: killall Finder.
To hide hidden files: open the Terminal application and type: defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE. In order for the Finder to recognize the change, restart the Finder by then typing: killall Finder.
4 thoughts on “Show Hidden Files in Mac OS X”
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Andy
Thank you.
There’s a great way to use Automator to create a workflow and add it to your contextual menu. It works flawlessly under Tiger. I found it here:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20050810163522316&query=applescript%2Bto%2Bshow%2Ball%2Bfiles%2Bin%2Bfinder
Jennifer Zelazny
Thanks for the workflow – that is great!
Brian
This is a good hint; I have to do this routinely at work (toggle between show and hide)… so I wrote an app to do it for you.
You can download from here (it’s free):
http://gotoes.org/sales/ShowHiddenFilesMacOSX/
Enjoy!
Merlin49
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