invisible files question
After I had done a backup and rebooted the following folders appeared: var, tmp, etc. All aliases, all at the root level of my hd. Can I delete these files? And if not, any idea how to set them to 'invisible' again? I've tried various things but nothing has worked so far.
I'm running Leopard btw
Thanks very much!
I'm running Leopard btw
Thanks very much!
Comments
If it's just a few files/folders, you can use File Buddy to set the invisible flag on each item.
Open File Buddy, choose file > get info, select the folder then click the invisible check box. You may need to relaunch the Finder for it to disappear.
ls -l /
(those are L's, not i's) and paste the results in here.
total 41373
drwxrwxr-x+ 162 root admin 5508 Oct 31 15:38 Applications
-rw-r--r--@ 1 root admin 24576 Oct 27 17:43 Desktop DB
-rw-r--r--@ 1 root admin 197186 Oct 30 10:56 Desktop DF
drwxr-xr-x 6 rudy admin 204 Oct 29 21:27 Developer Tools
drwxrwxr-t+ 57 root admin 1938 Oct 28 00:03 Library
drwxr-xr-x@ 2 root wheel 68 Sep 23 23:37 Network
drwxr-xr-x 4 root wheel 136 Oct 27 17:43 System
drwxr-xr-x 6 root admin 204 Oct 30 16:51 Users
drwxrwxrwt@ 7 root admin 238 Oct 31 17:37 Volumes
drwxr-xr-x@ 40 root wheel 1360 Oct 26 20:19 bin
drwxrwxr-t@ 2 root admin 68 Sep 23 23:37 cores
dr-xr-xr-x 2 root wheel 512 Oct 31 17:34 dev
lrwxr-xr-x@ 1 root admin 11 Oct 26 20:19 etc -> private/etc
dr-xr-xr-x 2 root wheel 1 Oct 31 17:35 home
-rw-r--r--@ 1 root wheel 10243756 Oct 10 06:38 mach_kernel
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 10696809 Oct 10 06:38 mach_kernel.ctfsys
dr-xr-xr-x 2 root wheel 1 Oct 31 17:35 net
drwxr-xr-x@ 6 root wheel 204 Oct 26 20:23 private
drwxr-xr-x@ 66 root wheel 2244 Oct 26 20:21 sbin
lrwxr-xr-x@ 1 root admin 11 Oct 26 20:19 tmp -> private/tmp
drwxr-xr-x@ 9 root wheel 306 Oct 27 19:47 usr
lrwxr-xr-x@ 1 root admin 11 Oct 26 20:19 var -> private/var
Thanks for the help. I had already tried Tinkertool, but to no avail. When opening the folder in FileBuddy, it was already marked as invisible, even though it's clearly visible. I un-marked invisible, and saved, then marked invisible again, but nothing happened - really weird.
Try deleting your Finder preferences com.apple.finder.plist.
thanks for the suggestion - unfortunately, no effect whatsoever. I'm lost here, really, nothing I try or do, the files remain visible, while they're supposed to be invisible. Weird!
That is strange, if you make a dummy file and use say File Buddy, are you able to make those files disappear?
A workaround you may be able to use is to add a .hidden file to the root directory and add the names of stuff that you want to be invisible.
You'd open a terminal and type:
touch /.hidden
then type
open -e /.hidden
this will open the file in TextEdit. Then you add the names of files/folders that you want to be hidden so the file would look something like:
etc
bin
usr
var
Once you're done, save the file and then reboot.
Also maybe check out xFile and see if that does a better job than File Buddy:
http://rixstep.com/4/0/xfile.shtml
After you install the developer tools, open the terminal and enter the following command:
/Developer/Tools/SetFile -a V
Before you hit enter, drag and drop the file you want to make invisible onto the terminal window. Makes sure there is a space after the V before you drag and drop the file. Press enter, doing one folder at a time.
It is easy to make anything invisible, so be careful. You can always use tinker tools if you accidentally makes something invisible, use the following command:
/Developer/Tools/SetFile -a v [path to file]
(note the lowercase v)
For the symlinks (the ones like etc with the arrow on them) you'll need to restart for them to register the change.
-Joakes
Meanwhile I've switched to SmartBackup (a very very nice program and very fast as well!), at least until Synk fixes the problem.
thanks again
I'd just as soon hide them...It'd be handy to be able to "click for invisibility" somewhere in the file information, but I don't see it.
Looks like, from what you're saying, I have to fetch a copy of "File Buddy"?