How do you to unhide all files & dirs(Solved)

[Raman]

When learning how to use Puppy Linux, all files and directories should be visible without having to employ special techniques. In (DRDOS) PCDOS one simply uses (XATTRIB) ATTRIB -r-s-h-a c:\*.* /s, and bingo, every file and directory on c: drive is visible to the (XDIR) DIR command. How do you accomplish the same result in Linux?

Thanks.

Raman

[rarsa]

In Linux you don't modify the file, you modify the command.

Linux knows to 'hide' files and folders that start with "." (dot).

To see the 'hidden' files in ROX, you just click the corresponding tool bar button (the one with xxx). You can have the hidden files shown as a default if you change the ROX options: Right click in any Desktop Icon and select "Options...".

To see the 'hidden' files when requesting the listing on the command line you add the option "-a" (show all)

Code: Select all

ls -a     <---- This will show the hidden files
ls -la     <---- This will show the hiden files plus the files details

Do not rename the 'hidden' files to make them visible. Most of the time, the hidden files are referenced by scripts and utilities. If you change the name, you will break them.

It is actually NOT a good idea to show all the hidden files to the new users as most of them could not care less about those files and just clutter the view for things that they really care about.

Actually, there have been request to hide even more folders under '/root' in puppy.

Linux is not alone in this behaviour, with many OSs, you have to go out of your way to show hidden system files and folders.