If you want them visible, then just do this in your shell: alias ls="ls -a" And now anytime you do an ls, you'll have visible dot files. Of if you are using

If you want them visible, then just do this in your shell: alias ls="ls -a" And now anytime you do an ls, you'll have visible dot files. Of if you are using Linux and the GNU tools, setting the LS_OPTIONS environment variable to contain -a will also make them always visible.