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How to make folder visible

post #1 of 6
10/31/03 at 7:21am
Thread Starter 
I know the gazillion programs that make ALL files visible. But here's my problem. We made an image for our school districts laptops but for some reason the Applications folder in OS X is not visible. I want to know the command line way to make the folder visible. I know about File Buddy but I want a quick way to do it without having to waste time to install anything. The command line always proves quicker to do these kind of tasks. If anyone knows, Please leave a reply. Thanks much.
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post #2 of 6
10/31/03 at 7:36am
You might have accidently added a dot in front of Applications.

Go into the terminal and type "cd /Applications"

Then type "ls"

Now you know if the folder exists.

If it does, type "cd /"

This brings you back to the root folder.

Report back on what that does.

edit: You don't need the quotes.
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post #3 of 6
10/31/03 at 7:44am
Install the Dev Tools:

/Developer/Tools/SetFile -a V <filename> - makes file invisible
/Developer/Tools/SetFile -a v <filename> - makes file visible

You may need to relaunch the Finder to see the changes sometimes.
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post #4 of 6
10/31/03 at 7:54am
Thread Starter 
Yeah, I am sure that there is no . in front of the applications folder. Since these are lab machines we don't have developer tools installed. I was aware of that feature. I am pretty handy in the terminal. I just wish I knew EVERYTHING, then my worries would be over. But no, I still need another terminal command that can do it, if one even exists. Thanks for trying to help me.
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post #5 of 6
10/31/03 at 8:02am
If it's a lab computer, I also doubt that you will have write permissions to change the visibility flag.

Regardless, here are copies of SetFile compiled for Jaguar or Panther (as indicated by their names). Unzip them to your home directory. Open the terminal and try this:

cd ~
./SetFileJaguar -a v /Applications

or if you are on Panther:

cd ~
./SetFilePanther -a v /Applications

If you aren't bent on making it visible and just want to access its contents in the Finder, simply enter this in the terminal:

open /Applications

Or choose Go to Folder in the Finder's Go menu and type /Applications as the path.
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post #6 of 6
10/31/03 at 8:13am
Quote:
Originally posted by The Letter Exchange
Yeah, I am sure that there is no . in front of the applications folder. Since these are lab machines we don't have developer tools installed. I was aware of that feature. I am pretty handy in the terminal. I just wish I knew EVERYTHING, then my worries would be over. But no, I still need another terminal command that can do it, if one even exists. Thanks for trying to help me.

Without the developer tools, you won't be able to make your files visible with a simple command... but there might still be a way.

This is off the top of my head, and I don't have a Mac with me to check the details, but in addition to the olde-fashioned Unix way of making a file invisible with a . in front of the name, I believe that the Finder also looks for an entry in the .DS_store file that signifies that a file should be invisible.

If it's not .DS_Store, it's another .something_invisible file in the same directory.

I know I've manually edited some such file and made other files and folders that were invisible visible this way. The format of the file and how to change it was apparent to me just by looking at the file with a text editor.
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We were once so close to heaven
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