topic Re: regarding hidden files in Operating System - HP-UX

regarding hidden files

Ragni Singh — Mon, 04 Mar 2002 19:31:52 GMT

hey guys,

when I type the ls command, why do I show my hidden files. I see my hidden files wheather I type ls or ls -asl. What am I doing wrong? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Re: regarding hidden files

A. Clay Stephenson — Mon, 04 Mar 2002 19:35:41 GMT

I suspect that you have an alias defined. Do an 'alias' to list your currently defined aliases.

Re: regarding hidden files

Helen French — Mon, 04 Mar 2002 19:38:09 GMT

Hi Sanman,

It could be an 'alias' issue. Check your global and local profiles for any alias settings. Also 'alias' command will list you the current defined aliases.

HTH,
Shiju

Re: regarding hidden files

harry d brown jr — Mon, 04 Mar 2002 19:38:10 GMT

There is no such thing as a "hidden" file. Protected maybe, and unviewable through permissions.

live free or die
harry

Re: regarding hidden files

harry d brown jr — Mon, 04 Mar 2002 19:52:04 GMT

If you are talking about files like:

.blah+

then yes they are "hidden" from non owners using "ls", but if you are root, you will always see them, and if you use "ls -la" you will always see them, regardless of the user.

live free or die
harry

Re: regarding hidden files

SHABU KHAN — Mon, 04 Mar 2002 19:57:25 GMT

Sanman,

Type:
alias ls

You must have an alias set to ls as ls -la...which will display all your . (dot files)

-Shabu

Re: regarding hidden files

Frank Slootweg — Wed, 06 Mar 2002 13:10:58 GMT

Do you mean filenames starting with a dot (".")? If so, are you doing this as root?

If so, then this is the normal behaviour. The ls(1) manual page is not very specific about this, but does somewhat mention it:

> -A The same as -a, except that the current directory "." and
> parent directory ".." are not listed. For a user with
> appropriate privileges, this flag defaults to ON, and is
> turned off by -A.

Re: regarding hidden files

Darrell Allen — Wed, 06 Mar 2002 16:08:33 GMT

Hi Sanman,

It appears your answer was just the difference in how ls works for superusers and non-superusers. Hidden files (beginning with ".") are displayed when root runs ls.

For later readers, if you are using the posix shell, enter "whence -v ls" to see what the shell intreprets "ls" to be. See man sh-posix for more info.

Darrell