4 ms·

Also, please don't use dotfiles. There is no reason to hide such important files.

smt88 6y ago
On which systems are they hidden? I hadn't even considered this issue because no file browser I've used in the last ~10 years has hidden dotfiles. Maybe Windows Explorer does, but that's a setting I typically change right away, so I don't even remember.
- tesseract 6y ago
  `ls` is probably the most important place they're hidden, but the Mac OS Finder honors this convention too.
  - dylan604 6y ago
    i much prefer them to be hidden by default. i know they are there, but rarely do i need them. especially in something like `for i in $(ls -1)` type of commands. if i need them `alias 'lla = ls -la'`, 'alias 'la = ls -a'` are faves to now see what i'm looking for quickly
    - Symbiote 6y ago
      for i in *
  - milkytron 6y ago
    I think Windows has them hidden by default as well (in explorer).
    - marcosdumay 6y ago
      Since Win7. But Windows has a lot of problems with hidden files, so a lot of people just set it to not hide any.
  - gowld 6y ago
    They are hidden by default to protect newbies. GitHub users can unhide them.
  - smt88 6y ago
    Wow, I've used `ls -la` for so long that I didn't even know the default `ls` behavior. Thanks for reminding me.
- totetsu 6y ago
  I think you have to configure osx finder to not hide them. Android seems to use the . prefix to hide images in the image gallery.
- Jtsummers 6y ago
  *nix systems hide dotfiles by default. Some file browsers may show them. It's been a while since Linux was a daily driver for me, but it would surprise me if any of the standard/common ones showed dotfiles by default. On macOS they're hidden in Finder. I don't know about Windows, I think it shows them by default.
  - lokedhs 6y ago
    Neither Dolphin nor Nautilus (the file browsers in KDE and GNOME respectively) shows dotfiles by default.
- dgellow 6y ago
  MacOS and many Linux distributions.
- cesarb 6y ago
  > On which systems are they hidden? On most systems. There is a long-standing convention in the Unix-derived world that files and directories with names which start with a dot (this also includes "." and "..") are hidden in directory listings. The main exception is Windows, which inherited its conventions from MS-DOS; the convention there is that files and directories with the "hidden" and/or "system" attributes set are hidden from directory listings by default.
epage 6y ago
I do like something to sort overhead from core code, whether `_` prefix or something else.
NoodleIncident 6y ago
As far as I can tell, the only reason this is even a problem is because github doesn't hide dotfiles
dahfizz 6y ago
It's nothing to do with importance and everything to do with how often you need to see and access the file. My .vimrc and .bashrc are super important, but I rarely need to edit them and I never need to be reminded of their existence, so having them show up every time I ran ls in home would be annoying.
- account42 6y ago
  Both of these should ideally not be in the home directory at all but under XDG_CONFIG_HOME.
earthboundkid 6y ago
The arguments for using hidden files generally boil down to “they’re not hidden for me” (okay, so why are we using dotfiles then?) or “I don’t like clutter” (this is why there are “directories”).

On which systems are they hidden? I hadn't even considered this issue because no file browser I've used in the last ~10 years has hidden dotfiles. Maybe Windows Explorer does, but that's a setting I typically change right away, so I don't even remember.

tesseract 6y ago
`ls` is probably the most important place they're hidden, but the Mac OS Finder honors this convention too.
- dylan604 6y ago
  i much prefer them to be hidden by default. i know they are there, but rarely do i need them. especially in something like `for i in $(ls -1)` type of commands. if i need them `alias 'lla = ls -la'`, 'alias 'la = ls -a'` are faves to now see what i'm looking for quickly
  - Symbiote 6y ago
    for i in *
- milkytron 6y ago
  I think Windows has them hidden by default as well (in explorer).
  - marcosdumay 6y ago
    Since Win7. But Windows has a lot of problems with hidden files, so a lot of people just set it to not hide any.
- gowld 6y ago
  They are hidden by default to protect newbies. GitHub users can unhide them.
- smt88 6y ago
  Wow, I've used `ls -la` for so long that I didn't even know the default `ls` behavior. Thanks for reminding me.
totetsu 6y ago
I think you have to configure osx finder to not hide them. Android seems to use the . prefix to hide images in the image gallery.
Jtsummers 6y ago
*nix systems hide dotfiles by default. Some file browsers may show them. It's been a while since Linux was a daily driver for me, but it would surprise me if any of the standard/common ones showed dotfiles by default. On macOS they're hidden in Finder. I don't know about Windows, I think it shows them by default.
- lokedhs 6y ago
  Neither Dolphin nor Nautilus (the file browsers in KDE and GNOME respectively) shows dotfiles by default.
dgellow 6y ago
MacOS and many Linux distributions.
cesarb 6y ago
> On which systems are they hidden? On most systems. There is a long-standing convention in the Unix-derived world that files and directories with names which start with a dot (this also includes "." and "..") are hidden in directory listings. The main exception is Windows, which inherited its conventions from MS-DOS; the convention there is that files and directories with the "hidden" and/or "system" attributes set are hidden from directory listings by default.

epage 6y ago

I do like something to sort overhead from core code, whether `_` prefix or something else.

NoodleIncident 6y ago

As far as I can tell, the only reason this is even a problem is because github doesn't hide dotfiles

dahfizz 6y ago

It's nothing to do with importance and everything to do with how often you need to see and access the file. My .vimrc and .bashrc are super important, but I rarely need to edit them and I never need to be reminded of their existence, so having them show up every time I ran ls in home would be annoying.

account42 6y ago
Both of these should ideally not be in the home directory at all but under XDG_CONFIG_HOME.

earthboundkid 6y ago

The arguments for using hidden files generally boil down to “they’re not hidden for me” (okay, so why are we using dotfiles then?) or “I don’t like clutter” (this is why there are “directories”).