mathiasbynens / mathiasbynens/dotfiles
Showing and Hiding Hidden Files and Desktop Icons in 10.8
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- Dominant language
- Shell
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Description
The previous method of showing/hiding hidden files in Finder no longer works for me on 10.8
This, however, ~~does work~~:
``` bash
# Show hidden files
defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles YES; killall -HUP Finder
# Hide hidden files
defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles NO; killall -HUP Finder
```
_(I also use the `-HUP` flags on killall to request finder relaunch instead of forcing it to. Unrelated to this issue.)_
A nifty way of detecting the OS or for this specific capability may be needed, or just run both old and new commands when the user triggers these in `.aliases`.
**UPDATE:** This also affects showing and hiding desktop icons. Click here to skip ahead to the (lack of) solution: https://github.com/mathiasbynens/dotfiles/issues/102#issuecomment-7429741
Contributor guide
No contributing guide indexed for this repository
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Start by locating the existing hidden-file and desktop-icon commands in `.aliases`. Compare them with the macOS 10.8 `defaults` and `killall -HUP Finder` commands quoted here, then determine whether both command variants or OS-specific handling are needed. Done means the aliases show and hide hidden files and desktop icons on the affected macOS version.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- bash, macos, shell
- Domain
- cli, operating-systems
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 3/5
- Estimated time
- 1-2 days
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Needs clarification
- Newbie friendliness
- 32/100