#Invisibility toggler for mac mac os x

(The first line is what you type at the command line in Terminal the next four lines are the results.) The GetFileInfo man page explains the “attributes” line: each letter represents an HFS+ metadata attribute. If you install the (free) developer tools, though, you can use the GetFileInfo and SetFile utilities.įor example, to check your Desktop folder: $ GetFileInfo ~/Desktop

#Invisibility toggler for mac mac os x

I’m not aware of any software that ships by default with Mac OS X that lets you see or set the HFS+ invisible bit.

(The ls command does honor the Unix dot-file convention, though such files are suppressed unless you use the -a or -A options.) One place where the HFS+ invisible bit is not honored is the terminal - the ls command lists files and folders regardless of the state of their invisible bits. Invisibility is not inherited by the contents of an invisible folder, which explains why my friend could see the files on his desktop, but couldn’t see the “Desktop” folder itself in his home folder. Files marked invisible are still readable and writable, they just don’t show up in the Finder or in Open and Save dialogs.

In the same way that every file and folder has metadata such as created and modified dates, it has a boolean “invisible” bit. Toggle the HFS+ invisible bit for the file or folder.

Start the file or folder name with a dot (e.g.There are a two supported ways 1 to mark files as “invisible” on the Mac: Ends up, somehow, the folder had been made invisible. the icons you see when all windows are closed or hidden), but he couldn’t see the “Desktop” folder itself in his home folder. I helped a friend today with a seemingly baffling problem: he could see the files and folders on his desktop (i.e.