[cptaylor]

I'm sure this is a silly question but I can't figure out how to unhide files via the shell or script. D4X hides partially completed downloads. It doesn't always unhide them properly when complete. I have tried using 'mv' and 'rename' without success. They both do not see the hidden files. Is there a way to get either one to see and rename the hidden files.

Thanks.

[fuzzylizard]

As far as I know, the only thing that makes a file hidden in Linux is a decimal point in front of the name, i.e. .kde would make the kde directory hidden.

The way to see all hidden files is by simply using the:

$ ls -a

command. This will show all files that are in a directory. To unhide a file, simply remove the period at the start of the name.

I have not heard of any other way of hidding files in linux, but I may be wrong about that.

[cptaylor]

You're right, the files do just have a dot at the beginning. I am able to list the files and can rename them through Konquerer. However, I'd like to rename them from a script. The 'mv' and 'rename' commands do not see them since they are hidden. Perhaps, there's a way to pipe the results of 'ls -a' into the 'mv' command?

I probably should point out that I'm trying to use wildcards. For example, the following commands would not find the hidden file: '.foo.bar'.

mv .* *

This post has been edited by cptaylor: 16 December 2003 - 11:43 PM

[johnnyv]

mv .* * would move all files starting with . (wont move . and ..) to the next directory

eg) if you have a directory test/ and in test/ is a file .blah and directories test2/ and test/3

performing mv .* * in test/ will move .blah into the directory test2/

if you try mv .* * in a directory without any child directories it will result in an error about the last command must be a directory.

Even if you only have one .name file it will always think there are multiple files because every directory has . and .. which are for directory navigation i think, and because there are multiple files mv always wants the second argument to be a directory.

[fuzzylizard]

If you want to do this is a script, you are probably going to have to come up with one that inspects each file in a directory, checks for a proceeding dot, assigns the name of the file to a variable and then strips the proceeding dot out of the name and uses the value of the variable in the move command.

I am not sure if shell script can do this, but something like perl, python or ruby could do it with ease.

[WilliamS]

Just my curiousity, but why not use Konqueror?

[johnnyv]

I'm trying to do it via the command line but its hard, you can't seem to assign variables from within a pipe, least its not working for me, besides can you even use variables for the source and destination in mv.
Will look into it further after i cook and eat dinner.

[john@bob test]$ ls -a | grep -i -h '^[[:punct:]]\w' | xargs -i sh -c "(echo {} | sed -e 's/\.//g'  -e 's/ /\ /g'; echo {})"
cat
.cat
cathat
.cat.hat
hat
.hat
[john@bob test]$

This post has been edited by johnnyv: 17 December 2003 - 05:56 AM

[Steve Scrimpshire]

Holy cow that's a long command. i bet aru can come along and give you a better command that has like 9 characters...lol.

[johnnyv]

You think thats long look at this ;)/>
but php is much much much much easier/faster to produce for me then sh scripts

create a text file call it mv_hidden

paste this into it:

#!/usr/bin/php -q
<?php

if($_SERVER['argc'] != 2)
{
die("You must enter a directory as an argument!\nUsage: mv_hidden <directoryname>\n");
}

$path = $_SERVER['argv'][1]; // retrieve the path argument
// check path and make sure it has a trailing /, if not add one ---------------------------/
$path_length = strlen($path); // length of path string
$path_length--;
$path_last_slash = strrpos($path,"/"); // last position of / character
if($path_last_slash === false)
{
$path .= "/";
}
else
{
	if($path_length != $path_last_slash)
	{
	$path .= "/";
	}
}
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------/
echo "Path to search: $path\n";
$counter = 0;
if($handle = @opendir($path))
{
	while(false !== ($file = readdir($handle)))
  {
	$type = filetype("$path$file");
  if($type == "file")
  {
 	 if(strpos($file,".") === 0)
 	 {
 	 $new_name = substr($file, 1);
 	 $command = shell_exec("/bin/mv $path$file $path$new_name 2>&1");
    if($command != "")// if we got an error display it
    {
    echo $command."\n";
    }
    else
    {
    echo "$file   -->   $new_name\n";
    $counter++;
    }
 	 }
  }
	}
	if($counter != 0)
	{
	echo "$counter files converted\n";
	}

closedir($handle);
}
else
{
die("'$path' is not a valid directory\n");
}
?>

save the file then make it executable, make sure php is installed, place the mv_hidden in your $PATH some where (perhaps /usr/bin)

Then cd to a directory you want to convert all .blah files to blah
The command is mv_hidden /path

[johnnyv]

Oh by the way this is dangerous . files are usually configuration files so you can fsck up your box if you go messing with them.
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! :P/>

Oh and the script will overwrite files with the same name as your . file without the dot if you have write permission for that file.

eg .cat and cat
cat gets overwritten by .cat

This post has been edited by johnnyv: 17 December 2003 - 09:51 PM

[Cannonfodder]

While the scripting can be fun and a good learning experience, have to ask why you are renaming the files? Period or no.. is there something wrong with their current file name?

[Qchem]

Would this not be better as some form of loop?? eg

#!/bin/bash
for OLDNAME in ./.*
do
NEWNAME=`echo OLDNAME | cut -d. -f3`
mv $OLDNAME $NEWNAME
done
exit 0


Or possibly using tr as opposed to cut.....

BTW hidden files are usually that for a reason! This script is untested, if you use it and it breaks something - YOU own the pieces.

[AlgorithMan]

I stumbled upon this thread because I want to do the same thing - my motivation is i want to hide/unhide empty/nonempty subdirectories of my ~/Videos directory (another script might put files into the hidden directories) so "not-doing it" or using GUIs is not an option... after reading through this thread I have to say, ALL proposals here are nonsense!

"cut -d. -f3" will mess up every file that has a name with more than one . in it
using php breaks butterflies on a wheel
"mv .* *" won't work at all (as pointed out before)
echo "$filename" | sed s/\.// would remove the first character from a filename - no matter, if it's a . or not (since \. is an arbitrary character)
echo "$filename" | sed s/\\.// would remove the first . from a filename - if the file isn't hidden it would remove a different . (e.g. the file-extension separator)

I wrote my own solution now - I also use sed, but only on ^\\. so it will only remove a . if it is the first character (this is indicated by the ^ )
using ^\. would remove the first character, since \. is an arbitrary character - combined with ^ would be the first character

mv "$f" "$( echo "$f" | sed s/^\\.// )"

this will unhide a file, but only if it has no directory in front of it... i think in that case

mv "$f" "$(dirname "$f")/$(basename "$f" | sed s/^\\.//)"

should do. Edit: yes, that one works nicely

This post has been edited by AlgorithMan: 14 March 2008 - 11:27 PM