Hidden files on OSX

The Quickest Way to Show/Hide Hidden Files

Since the release of macOS Sierra, when in Finder, it is now possible to use the shortcut:

CMD + SHIFT + .

The long way to show hidden Mac OS X files

Run the following command to show hidden files:

% defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE;killall Finder

Run the following command to hide hidden files:

% defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE;killall Finder

Cleaning

Delete "garbage" files:

find . -name .svn -exec rm -rf {} \;
find . -name ".DS_Store" -depth -exec rm {} \;

Delete existing Spotlight Index

% sudo rm -rfv /.Spotlight-V100

Delete all ._ file?

% find . -name "._*" -exec rm '{}' ';'

The ._ files are where osx puts the resource fork of a file if it's not on a HFS or HFS+ volume, eg, UFS, or Fat16/32 or NTFS (or any of the linux file systems).

Prevent MDS from attempting to Index

% sudo touch /Volumes/your volume name here/.metadata_never_index

Disable Indexing AND Searching of Volumes

% sudo mdutil -i off -d /Volumes/your volume name here

Disable creating '.ds_store' on USB volumes

% defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteUSBStores -bool true

Disable creating '.ds_store' on network volumes

% defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores -bool true

frazei/hidden files osx.md

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