Unix and Linux Stack Exchange
Unix and Linux Stack Exchange

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.

A dotfile is a form of configuration file found on Unix and Unix-like systems.

Such files and directories have names that begin with a dot (hence the name). These files are typically found in user home directories and not displayed in default file listings.

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How do you move all files (including hidden) from one directory to another?

How do I move all files in a directory (including the hidden ones) to another directory? For example, if I have a folder "Foo" with the files ".hidden" and "notHidden" inside, how do I move both files to a directory named "Bar"? The following does…
Cory Klein
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How can I stop seeing hidden files in the Midnight Commander?

The Midnight Commander is a very helpful tool when we're using only the text mode. But sometimes it bothers me that I have to see all the hidden files inside a folder (files that begin with "."). I've tried to find how to do it changing some…
Rafael Muynarsk
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Why do some applications use ~/.config/appname for their config data while others use ~/.appname?

I've noticed that some applications put their configuration files to ~/.config/appname while others use ~/.appname (the classic way, AFAIK) for this. What's the sense in this distinction and what could be better to consider for an application of…
Ivan
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Are there pitfalls to putting $HOME in git instead of symlinking dotfiles?

I have for many years had my entire $HOME directory checked into subversion. This has included all my dotfiles and application profiles, many scripts, tools and hacks, my preferred basic home directory structure, not a few oddball projects and a…
Caleb
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How to match * with hidden files inside a directory

How to match the hidden files inside the given directories for example If I give the below command it's not giving the result of the hidden files, du -b maybehere*/* how to achieve this simple using a single command instead of using du -b…
vidhan
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What's so special about directories whose names begin with a dot?

I was wondering what the difference between these two were: ~/somedirectory/file.txt and ~/.somedirectory/file.txt It's really difficult to ask this on Google since I didn't know how to explain the . when I didn't even know what to call it. But…
Dark Templar
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How do I apply the changes to the .zshrc file after editing it?

I just edited the .zshrc file to configure Z shell on FreeBSD, for example to update the PATH system variable. path+=/usr/local/openjdk12/bin How do I make the changes take effect? Must I log out and log in again? Is there a way to immediately run…
Basil Bourque
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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 comments as to why this actually works, and nobody…
iFreilicht
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How to rename file to .. (dot dot)?

Apparently you can rename file to .... If I were insane, how would I rename file to .. or .? Is such a filename even allowed? Backslash doesn't seem to disable dot's special meaning: $ mv test \. mv: `test' and `./test' are the same file
gronostaj
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display only files starting with . (hidden)

I tried to display only hidden files but don't know how to do it. That is working (but matching also dots in other places) ls -la | grep '\.' Was trying adding ^ but didn't find the solution.
user3014282
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cp hidden files with glob patterns

Situation : $ mkdir foo && touch foo/.test $ cp foo/* . zsh: no matches found: foo/* (or bash : cp: cannot stat ‘foo/*’: No such file or directory) I have a directory full of hidden folders and files. What is happening and what is the solution?
Gradient
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`command .*` acts on the parent directory

Someone of our team wanted to recursively change the user permissions on all hidden directories in a users home directory. To do so he executed the following command: cd /home/username chown -R username:groupname .* We were pretty surprised when we…
g000ze
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How to keep dotfiles system-agnostic?

Due to work I have recently started using OS X and have set it up using homebrew in order to get a similar experience as with Linux. However, there are quite a few differences in their settings. Some only need to be in place on one system. As my…
k0pernikus
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Clean $HOME directory

During a few years, in my $HOME directory a lot of hidden files and directories appeared. I would like to continually delete the unneeded ones. How can I find out which applications created those hidden files and directories. How can I be sure that…
xralf
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Why are filenames that start with a dot hidden? Can I hide files without using a dot as their first character?

Initially I thought it was a coincidence, but now I see there's even a tag for it: all hidden file names start with a dot. Is this a convention? Why was it chosen? Can it be changed? Or in other words (as a related question @evilsoup suggested that…
JMCF125
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