3 ms·
Linux History: How Dot Files Became Hidden Files
- voakbasda 5y agoOne problem that I have experienced recently with GitHub is that it hides these sorts of hidden files. This means that you cannot properly review the repository before checking it out. Or am I missing some hidden feature equivalent to ‘ls -a’?
- eternityforest 5y agoDot files are one thing about Linux that seems to be truly timeless. We might not see them directly anymore, we have GUI settings tools, but I can't think of any better way to manage local app settings. Any kind of registry model seems to always require you to learn even more stuff than just some dotfiles. Normally old UNIX stuff doesn't really fit the modern way of doing things, but dotfiles are still standing.
- andreareina 5y ago.config is the modern replacement.
- 8bitsrule 5y agoSpeaking of Linux files, there's one feature I'd like to see in the GUI. In Linux, when you drag a file to a folder and hover, you've got one option: drop it into that folder. Another OS I used would wait for a second, then 'open' that folder so that you could drop your file into a sub-directory ... or drill down further by hovering over another. I wish! Old habits die hard. Maybe that can already be done, or there's an app or setting I've missed. If so, GREAT, I could quit mumbling every time.
- Symbiote 5y ago"the" GUI? There are at least 10 desktop environments in (relatively) common usage. The behaviour you describe is implemented in KDE / Dolphin. (I'm not familiar with Gnome's file browsing application.)
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- d_tr 5y agoGnome's Nautilus does this as well.
- mouth 5y agoI know macOS opens the folder after hovering the icon over it for a second. I want to say BeOS did this, too, but it’s been a long time since I used it as my daily driver.
- james-redwood 5y agoThis is implemented in Nautilus, Dolphin, and Pantheon Files. Not sure what you are talking about.
- rco8786 5y agoFun story! But I still don’t understand what the single ‘.’ file was meant for. How does it contribute to easy navigation?
- bennysomething 5y agoMe too, article doesn't explain. Maybe it's a hack to say current dir?
- bcbrown 5y agoThis is pure speculation, but perhaps it has to do with executable lookup. How should you execute a binary in the current working directory? `./bin_file` is very convenient.
- rco8786 5y agoAh interesting, certainly stands to reason
- pjmlp 5y agoUNIX history, there isn't anything Linux related in regards to dot files.