Show Hidden Files in OS X’s Finder

In web development on the Apache web server, a common configuration file used in nearly every site we build is the .htaccess file. But in OS X, you can’t see it in the Finder - hidden files (files which start with a dot “.”) are unavailable unless you use the Unix command line. I did some digging around and found a way to enable hidden files in the Finder - which, ironically involves using the command line to get there.

Open the Terminal application (or, I much prefer iTerm) and type the following:
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
and after hitting return, follow it up with
killall Finder
which restarts the Finder and shows all files.

Hidden files in the OS X Finder

To revert back to hiding those files, simply run the same command above again but change TRUE to FALSE

This entry was posted on Monday, October 1st, 2007 at 9:31 pm and is filed under Apache, OS X. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Comment

  1. Fix xterm launch from Terminal.app in Mac OS X 10.5 (display error solved!) « ::DriveNet:: says:
    February 26, 2009 at 3:42 pm

    [...] steps quickly, you should enable viewing hidden files in Finder.app. This can be done using the procedure described here, or using a Mac OS X manitenance app such as IceClean. By default Finder.app does not show hidden [...]

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