Questions tagged [dot-files]
A dotfile is a file or directory whose name begins with a dot. These files are typically found in user home directories, contain configuration information and hidden from view on Unix systems.
94
questions
1
vote
2answers
81 views
How to avoid copying “..” while using cp command in terminal? [duplicate]
I am using CentOS7 and when I use command
cp /root/test/.* /root/test1
it also copies .. which copies all the files and folder in the parent directory of the source.
How to avoid copying . and ..?
0
votes
1answer
45 views
Can you hide files and folders on MacOS the same way as Linux?
I'm trying to make a Python script that creates a hidden folder for a specific file I'm creating across any platform.
I'm aware you can do this easily with Linux by placing "." as the beginning of a ...
4
votes
1answer
493 views
Dot in front of file [duplicate]
If there is a file and the filename starts with a dot in front of it. Does that mean that you created the file and you are hiding stuff in it or can the files get created on their own without you ...
3
votes
1answer
65 views
Which files in $HOME defines the user preferences in gnome?
I'm backup/syncing my dotfiles in my $HOME-Directory via git. I don't want to sync everything of course, so I ignore everything via .gitignore and re-add the important files.
*
!.bash*
.*.swp
....
0
votes
0answers
51 views
How to always show hidden files/folders in Chrome OS Files app?
With the Chrome OS Files app, I know how to view hidden files and folders for a single open folder, but is there a way to make that persistent, either across all folders or for a particular folder?
0
votes
1answer
29 views
How do configure ZSH commands substition to not use backticks (`)?
I only want echo $(date) to return the date not the backticked version.
echo $(date) # should return Wed Mar 6 09:50:41 EST 2019
echo `date` # should return `date`
2
votes
1answer
67 views
map ls -a to ls -A
I have tried to made an alias ls -a = ls -A, ending up with:
bash: alias: `ls -a': invalid alias name
I want ls -a without . and ... How can I get that?
0
votes
2answers
71 views
How to tar a directory including dotfiles, but omitting all reference to the directory itself
I want to back up home directories including the usual array of dotfiles, but I do not want the directory itself, or its permissions to be backed up or even mentioned. So, if I have a structure like
...
0
votes
1answer
83 views
Is there a totally empty Bash file I can use (or create) to extend .bashrc and .profile?
I know that by principle, one shouldn't change .bashrc and common changes like creating an alias should better be done in .profile instead.
When I rent a new IaaS system with Bash as main shell, the ...
0
votes
1answer
24 views
Can not edit file symlinked (Permission denied)
I started using dotfiles to sync everything I need to github. But I got some problem when symblink config files from dotfiles/ to ~/
Examples:
$ rm ~/.config/termite/config
$ ln -s ~/dotfiles/...
1
vote
1answer
27 views
Excluding certain files from moving but move hidden ones too
In my deployment script I have such as code to exclude certain files.
shopt -s extglob
mv !(deploy.sh|file1|file2) ~/$public
It works almost well but ignores hidden files so they are not moved. How ...
2
votes
6answers
187 views
How do I match only dotfiles in bash? [duplicate]
rm -rf .* will only not end horribly because rm refuses to delete . and ...
How do I exclude these special directories from a glob pattern?
This is not solved by dotglob since I want to match only ...
0
votes
1answer
56 views
How to save settings for Synaptic (Graphical package manager)?
I have dotfiles where I store the settings from all the programs that I use. I mean files with the extension .conf, .cfg, .rc and etc.
But I cannot find a place where the Synaptic keeps its settings.
...
-2
votes
1answer
92 views
cp -r <Folder Name> .<Folder Name>
I run the command cp -r <Folder Name> .<Folder Name>. It have done something, but I cannot find it.
Example:
cp -r Agent .Agent.old # (There is a dot symbol on the 2nd folder name)
1
vote
2answers
74 views
Remove files/folders that start with “.” [duplicate]
This command:
rm -rf "$HOME/.quicklock/locks/"*
does seem to remove files or folders in the locks directory, which start with "."
how can I remove those files too? Any other filenames that would ...
1
vote
1answer
306 views
How to disable oh-my-zsh features only in PyCharm terminal
When using the shell in PyCharm, I have noticed that when I type quickly, the auto-complete feature will cause characters to be dropped.
Is there a convenient way to start /bin/zsh and cause it to ...
1
vote
2answers
135 views
Setting Vim to use shell syntax for dotfiles?
I am creating multiple files (.school_aliases and .git_aliases) to put my aliases in for organization. However, Vim doesn't highlight syntax for these files automatically like for .bashrc or ....
1
vote
2answers
284 views
Backup only hidden (dot) files with duplicity
I would like to backup config files (hidden, starting with a dot) with duplicity. Only files, no directories. The following command
duplicity --include '/home/foo/.*' --exclude '/home/foo/**' /home/...
0
votes
1answer
444 views
Grouping hidden files and directories with ls
How can ls be flagged to sort .-prefixed hidden directories and files in groups so that its output is sorted as visible directories, hidden directories, visible files, then hidden files?
I currently ...
0
votes
0answers
95 views
Windows 10 ISO content looks odd (“.” directory)
I've downloaded Windows 10 Disc Image from microsoft.com recently. I mounted it using Archive Mounter in Ubuntu. And I saw just a hidden folder "." and an empty "README.TXT" file in the root.
ls -aR ...
1
vote
1answer
89 views
Migrate from Linux Mint to OS X [closed]
So my trusty Linux box died after 10 years of faithful service. The memorial will be Friday afternoon.
Anyway, I am moving to a Mac (lesser of two evils - a Win 10 machine was the other option), and ...
13
votes
2answers
3k views
cp behaves weirdly when . (dot) or .. (dot dot) are the source directory
This answer reveals that one can copy all files - including hidden ones - from directory src into directory dest like so:
mkdir dest
cp -r src/. dest
There is no explanation in the answer or its ...
0
votes
2answers
457 views
Symlinking all dot-files and -directories
Say I have a folder ~/dot containing some files and directories, such as
zshrc, Xresources, and emacs.d. How do I create symlinks to all of those in ~, but such that the symlinks begin with a dot (....
3
votes
2answers
1k views
Is there a way to have ls show hidden files for only certain directories?
I have a directory where regardless of user or options selected, I would like it to always show hidden files.
I know the -a option will show hidden files. I just want to automate the decision on ...
0
votes
1answer
243 views
Why does /etc/profile check PS1 rather than the -i flag in $-
I know of two ways to test whether a shell is interactive,
[[ $- == *i* ]] && echo "-i option flag indicates interactive"
[ -n "$PS1" ] && echo "prompt is set"
I've read that ...
2
votes
6answers
3k views
UNIX: How to change all hidden files to visible in a multiple sub directories
I have hundreds of sub directories in a directory that all have hidden files in them that I need to remove the period at the beginning of them to make them visible. I found a command to go into each ...
1
vote
2answers
336 views
Good way to prevent student from messing program settings in /home/user
I am a teacher and I use Linux which is great! But students are curious about this "new" operating system they do not know and in GUI they tweak program settings which affects hidden files inside /...
4
votes
2answers
7k views
rm wildcard not working
I want to delete all .swp files recursively. However:
rm -r *.swp
Gives:
rm: cannot remove ‘*.swp’: No such file or directory
Just to be sure, ls -all gives:
total 628
drwxr--r--. 8 przecze ...
1
vote
0answers
22 views
Methods to saving system configuration files [duplicate]
Normally user-specific config files would be dotfiles in the home-directory. If the user wanted a little more, they could put it in a dotfiles folder and symlink the files or use gnu stow to handle ...
0
votes
1answer
91 views
Bash use alternate dotfile?
I want to load my personalized bash file ~/.bashrc.me instead of the one that is located at ~/.bashrc
I was hoping there was something to the effect of:
bash --dotfile=.bashrc.me
Does such a thing ...
-3
votes
2answers
348 views
Hiding files without affecting the software or operating system's functionality [closed]
Random software keeps on creating folders in my home folder which gets messed up and disorganized. I decided to clean things up. I added a dot . in the beginning of the folder's names in order to hide ...
1
vote
1answer
1k views
Where to put bash configuration for newly created users? [duplicate]
I have an assignment and I'm confused which bash configuration file to edit.
I'm supposed to edit a bash configuration file and change the PS1 prompt and add an environment variable that searches ~/...
2
votes
1answer
5k views
Remove everything within directory using for loop
I am trying to remove large amount of mails (mostly mail delivery failed) from my server using
rm -rf /home/*/mail/new/*
And I am getting -bash: /usr/bin/rm: Argument list too long
I tried using ...
4
votes
4answers
803 views
bash moving hidden files, reset dotglob?
I wanted to move all files, including starting with dot (hidden) and folders (recursively).
So I used the following commands
shopt -s dotglob nullglob
mv ~/public/* ~/public_html/
and it worked.
...
0
votes
1answer
67 views
Would replacing sourced bash functions with executables decrease startup time
A typical bash setup, sourcees additional dotfiles on startup which obviously increases the startup time.
Is there an be any benefit of moving the contents of a function to its own executable file?
...
1
vote
1answer
310 views
Symlinking `init.el` in
I would like to symlink my emacs init.el into a dotfiles repo - located at ~/Documents/Dotfiles. However, when I attempt to do so the command fails even though my prompt doesn't return an error - ls -...
3
votes
1answer
212 views
Keeping dotfiles in sync for different folders
I am using Dropbox for storing my dotfiles from which I create soft links to my home directory. For configuration files which I do edit by myself it works very good, however applications like firefox ...
7
votes
1answer
287 views
How are files/dirs hidden from ls -a while still being accessible otherwise in a POSIX compliant system?
For example, in ZFS under FreeBSD and ZoL, there is a magic .zfs dir inside of each zpool mountpoint and you can use zfs set snapdir=visible to make that .zfs dir visible.
What makes me curious is: ...
1
vote
2answers
1k views
Bash pattern to match directories whose names begin with a dot (period), by being “explicit”, instead of using “shopt -s dotglob”?
When constructing a pattern that matches a file name such as /home/user/project/.git, how does one match the . character "explicitly" -- that is, without the use of shopt -s dotglob?
The manual at ...
2
votes
1answer
626 views
dotfiles: can/should(?) gnu stow make hard links, so I can still use xfce settings gui programs
I'm trying to manage my dotfiles under version control. My dotfiles repos contains a xfce-base folder, this folder contains the .config/xfce4/.../xy-setting.xml stuff. I can stow, or better, symlink ...
0
votes
2answers
2k views
How to ls with globbing for hidden files?
Why the following doesn't include hidden files ?
ls -a *vim*
that will return
ls: cannot access '*vim*': No such file or directory
ls -a | grep vim
.vim
.vimrc
1
vote
1answer
122 views
Creating a dotfile script
I asked this question over on SO and didn't get very far; here is the current version of my script and what I'd like the do. Suggestions for debugging and testing are what I'm looking for. I'll ...
3
votes
2answers
518 views
Dealing with machine specific configs when using git for configuration management
I've been using a git repo for managing my systems configs for a while now. I used the documentation on Digital Ocean tutorials here. Pretty much I have a remote repo on a server. Do a git clone of ...
5
votes
4answers
7k views
How to delete all files in a current directory starting with a dot?
I use Ubuntu 14.04 and in a terminal I became root with sudo su and I wanted to delete root's trash manually. It deleted everything except for a few files that start with a dot. Like .htaccess etc. So ...
1
vote
1answer
155 views
Git tracking dotfiles that are symlinked
I keep my dotfiles in a private git repo on bitbucket and this works great for the majority of my files (.vimrc, .tmux.conf etc) then I just set up symlinks from my home directory to my cloned gitrepo ...
2
votes
2answers
179 views
ssh directory disappears after `mv ssh .ssh`
I was in user home directory , and wanted to rename the ssh folder into .ssh folder.
I tried this.
rachit@DESKTOP-ENS2652:~/ssh$ ls
some-machine some-machine.pub
rachit@DESKTOP-ENS2652:~/ssh$ cd ..
...
2
votes
0answers
88 views
How to handle multi-machine-dot-file-versioning
I'm thinking about versioning my dot-files via git on a public repository. I've moved all the interesting dot-files like .profiles or .vimrc to the repository and subsequently symlinked them to there ...
0
votes
5answers
611 views
how to iterate through files in directory excluding hidden files
Using:
for eachfile in /mnt/thara/*
Which iterates through hidden files as well. I don't need hidden files.
0
votes
1answer
337 views
chown -R user:group * won't affect dot files [duplicate]
I noticed the command chown -R user:group * ran as root won't affect dot files like .htaccess, unless I specify them one by one, like chown -R user:group .htaccess
How to make chown -R user:group * ...
2
votes
7answers
3k views
grep ignores files starting with dot [duplicate]
Let me give an example:
$ echo Hello > file1
$ echo Hello > file2
$ echo Hello > .file3
$ grep Hello * 2>/dev/null
file1:Hello
file2:Hello
Here you can see the grep ignored .file3 which ...
