Hiding (OS X) dotfiles in OS 9?
hysterion
.CFUserTextEncoding, etc.
Is there a way to make those invisible in OS 9 *also* -- perhaps
individually, but preferably on a per-folder basis? So that for
instance, when I use OS 9 to access my OS X home directory, it would
automatically appear uncluttered by whatever config files have been
generated since my last visit?
Paul McGrane
wrote:
It's sad that OS X won't apply the invisible flag to these files it
creates. The dot helps in OS X but does nothing for 9.
I don't know about a truly good solution. But the best I've devised is
to download FileTyper and make an Auto-Typing program that can match up
files beginning with a period and make them invisible (in a way the 9
Finder recognizes). It can be set to work recursively. So after a bit of
testing and maybe bumping up the memory allotment of the AutoTyper, you
could probably unleash it on your hard drive with one fell ... uh ...
drag. And then go watch a movie or something as it works :^)
I haven't run an AutoTyper on the scale of a whole drive before, but I
did use it to re-type my ~20GB of MP3s to iTunes' creator code since
most were set to SoundJam or blank, thanks to the ignorance of Apple's
recent software. It can provide a count of the number of files or
folders modified so you can get a sense if things are progressing.
FileTyper:
<http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~dazuma/filetyper/>
--
...Paul McGrane
Tom Stiller
> Booting in OS 9 reveals a bunch of OS X dotfiles, such as .tcsh_history,
If you have the Developer tools installed, you can do it from the
command line with:
"find . -name ".[a-zA-Z0-9]* -exec /Developer/Tools/SetFile -a V {} \;"
which will find all files begining with a "." followed by at least one
alphanumeric character in the file tree from the current directory down,
and et the file's "invisible" bit. I recommend that you use:
"find . -name ".[a-zA-Z0-9]* -print" first to see which files are going
to be affected.
If you make a mistake, replace the uppercase "V" with a lowercase "v" to
clear the "invisible" bit.
--
Tom Stiller
PGP fingerprint = 5108 DDB2 9761 EDE5 E7E3 7BDA 71ED 6496 99C0 C7CF
hysterion
> It's sad that OS X won't apply the invisible flag to these files it
> creates. The dot helps in OS X but does nothing for 9.
>
> I don't know about a truly good solution. But the best I've devised is
> to download FileTyper and make an Auto-Typing program that can match up
> files beginning with a period and make them invisible (in a way the 9
> Finder recognizes). It can be set to work recursively. So after a bit of
> testing and maybe bumping up the memory allotment of the AutoTyper, you
> could probably unleash it on your hard drive with one fell ... uh ...
> drag. And then go watch a movie or something as it works :^)
Hmmm... thanks! I'll definitely look into this. Actually it'll already
be enough if it works on a smaller scale -- it's mainly for the home dir
of my better half, who switches a lot between OS 9 and OS X.
I've also been wondering: since new dotfiles keep being created, might a
daily cron script be in order? Are there perhaps OS X command line tools
(like "Rez"?) that could set the invisible bit, and be used to build
such a script?
hysterion
> If you have the Developer tools installed, you can do it from the
> command line with:
> "find . -name ".[a-zA-Z0-9]* -exec /Developer/Tools/SetFile -a V {} \;"
>
> which will find all files begining with a "." followed by at least one
> alphanumeric character in the file tree from the current directory down,
> and et the file's "invisible" bit. I recommend that you use:
> "find . -name ".[a-zA-Z0-9]* -print" first to see which files are going
> to be affected.
>
> If you make a mistake, replace the uppercase "V" with a lowercase "v" to
> clear the "invisible" bit.
Ah, beautiful! I should have read this before sending my second message,
because that's exactly what I ended up asking for :-) See also
http://www.resexcellence.com/htdocs/dcforumlite//4373.shtml
I worked part of the way through /Developer/Tools earlier tonight,
trying to figure out what these things do, but I stopped before I got to
"SetFile". (Not all of the have man pages, but this one does.)
This is going into the cron tab, presto. Thanks!!
Gordon Mulcaster
> Booting in OS 9 reveals a bunch of OS X dotfiles, such as
> .tcsh_history, .CFUserTextEncoding, etc.
>
> Is there a way to make those invisible in OS 9 *also* -- perhaps
> individually, but preferably on a per-folder basis?
ResEdit, slow and painful. I think File Buddy will do it, fast and
painless. Next write Apple and complain about OS X not making use of the
Meta Data inherant in HFS+.
morgan mair fheal
set the invisible finder flag
you can do that with drag and drop (including folders) on dropconversion
available fro the price of download at finer info-mac sites everywhere
Tom Stiller
> Booting in OS 9 reveals a bunch of OS X dotfiles, such as .tcsh_history,
If you have the Developer tools installed, you can do it from the
command line with:
"find . -name ".[a-zA-Z0-9]*" -exec /Developer/Tools/SetFile -a V {} \;"
which will find all files begining with a "." followed by at least one
alphanumeric character in the file tree from the current directory
(represented by .) down, and set the file's "invisible" bit.
I recommend that you use: "find . -name ".[a-zA-Z0-9]*" -print" first to
see which files are going to be affected.
If you make a mistake, replace the uppercase "V" with a lowercase "v" to
clear the "invisible" bit.
--