Dot in front of file2019 Community Moderator ElectionFilename dot in frontWhy are filenames that start with a dot hidden? Can I hide files without using a dot as their first character?How to rename file to .. (dot dot)?How to colourise hidden files in `ls` file listings?Sort files according to their extensionsUsing File Date/Time as Metadata: Reliable?How do I remove all but the file name (with no extension) from a full file path?Am I correct in my understanding of how symlinks and `..` interact under POSIXTwo dots (..) or two dashes (--) as a delimiter in the names of files and directoriesshell script to walk folders and sub-folders, convert timestamp to UTC format and export .csv fileFilename dot in front

What is IP squat space

Employee lack of ownership

Is it possible that AIC = BIC?

Informing my boss about remarks from a nasty colleague

How to answer questions about my characters?

Bash replace string at multiple places in a file from command line

An Accountant Seeks the Help of a Mathematician

Old race car problem/puzzle

Should we release the security issues we found in our product as CVE or we can just update those on weekly release notes?

Have researchers managed to "reverse time"? If so, what does that mean for physics?

Possible Leak In Concrete

Is having access to past exams cheating and, if yes, could it be proven just by a good grade?

How to simplify this time periods definition interface?

Is a lawful good "antagonist" effective?

What is this large pipe coming out of my roof?

Calculus II Professor will not accept my correct integral evaluation that uses a different method, should I bring this up further?

Why are there 40 737 Max planes in flight when they have been grounded as not airworthy?

The use of "touch" and "touch on" in context

Why did it take so long to abandon sail after steamships were demonstrated?

Why would a flight no longer considered airworthy be redirected like this?

2D counterpart of std::array in C++17

What has been your most complicated TikZ drawing?

Does this AnyDice function accurately calculate the number of ogres you make unconcious with three 4th-level castings of Sleep?

Welcoming 2019 Pi day: How to draw the letter π?



Dot in front of file



2019 Community Moderator ElectionFilename dot in frontWhy are filenames that start with a dot hidden? Can I hide files without using a dot as their first character?How to rename file to .. (dot dot)?How to colourise hidden files in `ls` file listings?Sort files according to their extensionsUsing File Date/Time as Metadata: Reliable?How do I remove all but the file name (with no extension) from a full file path?Am I correct in my understanding of how symlinks and `..` interact under POSIXTwo dots (..) or two dashes (--) as a delimiter in the names of files and directoriesshell script to walk folders and sub-folders, convert timestamp to UTC format and export .csv fileFilename dot in front










2















If there is a file and the filename starts with a dot in front of it does th ast mean that you created the file and you are hiding stuff in it or can the files get created on their own without you creating the filename. I'm just saying I have files with dots in front of them but I didnt create them can anyone answer please and thank you.










share|improve this question







New contributor




Regina Saucedo is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.




















  • Hello and welcome to the U&L stack exchange site! Please read over the help center to get more information on how to best post to this site. To get to your question, dotfiles or files starting with a dot character are hidden files. They can used for configuration files for applications you have installed or as profiles for your user settings. What files are you having an issue with? Please edit your post to include more context. Thank you!

    – kemotep
    5 hours ago











  • I'm not having a problem with mybfilea never looked at my files I'm getting accused of hiding things in files and also that I have hidden apps and I've never downloaded hidden apps

    – Regina Saucedo
    4 hours ago






  • 3





    Possible duplicate of Filename dot in front

    – Stephen Kitt
    4 hours ago











  • Don't worry and don't let people accuse you of doing covert operations on your file system. Everyone can type in ls -alF in a command shell, and all hiding goes away. BTW you might want to use alias l='ls --color=tty -alF' and with it just type one single l to see it all. Try echo 'set nu' > .vimrc and voila, you've line numbers in your vi or vim editor. That's all there is to it with "hidden" files.

    – Micha
    4 hours ago















2















If there is a file and the filename starts with a dot in front of it does th ast mean that you created the file and you are hiding stuff in it or can the files get created on their own without you creating the filename. I'm just saying I have files with dots in front of them but I didnt create them can anyone answer please and thank you.










share|improve this question







New contributor




Regina Saucedo is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.




















  • Hello and welcome to the U&L stack exchange site! Please read over the help center to get more information on how to best post to this site. To get to your question, dotfiles or files starting with a dot character are hidden files. They can used for configuration files for applications you have installed or as profiles for your user settings. What files are you having an issue with? Please edit your post to include more context. Thank you!

    – kemotep
    5 hours ago











  • I'm not having a problem with mybfilea never looked at my files I'm getting accused of hiding things in files and also that I have hidden apps and I've never downloaded hidden apps

    – Regina Saucedo
    4 hours ago






  • 3





    Possible duplicate of Filename dot in front

    – Stephen Kitt
    4 hours ago











  • Don't worry and don't let people accuse you of doing covert operations on your file system. Everyone can type in ls -alF in a command shell, and all hiding goes away. BTW you might want to use alias l='ls --color=tty -alF' and with it just type one single l to see it all. Try echo 'set nu' > .vimrc and voila, you've line numbers in your vi or vim editor. That's all there is to it with "hidden" files.

    – Micha
    4 hours ago













2












2








2








If there is a file and the filename starts with a dot in front of it does th ast mean that you created the file and you are hiding stuff in it or can the files get created on their own without you creating the filename. I'm just saying I have files with dots in front of them but I didnt create them can anyone answer please and thank you.










share|improve this question







New contributor




Regina Saucedo is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.












If there is a file and the filename starts with a dot in front of it does th ast mean that you created the file and you are hiding stuff in it or can the files get created on their own without you creating the filename. I'm just saying I have files with dots in front of them but I didnt create them can anyone answer please and thank you.







filenames






share|improve this question







New contributor




Regina Saucedo is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.











share|improve this question







New contributor




Regina Saucedo is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.









share|improve this question




share|improve this question






New contributor




Regina Saucedo is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.









asked 5 hours ago









Regina SaucedoRegina Saucedo

121




121




New contributor




Regina Saucedo is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.





New contributor





Regina Saucedo is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.






Regina Saucedo is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.












  • Hello and welcome to the U&L stack exchange site! Please read over the help center to get more information on how to best post to this site. To get to your question, dotfiles or files starting with a dot character are hidden files. They can used for configuration files for applications you have installed or as profiles for your user settings. What files are you having an issue with? Please edit your post to include more context. Thank you!

    – kemotep
    5 hours ago











  • I'm not having a problem with mybfilea never looked at my files I'm getting accused of hiding things in files and also that I have hidden apps and I've never downloaded hidden apps

    – Regina Saucedo
    4 hours ago






  • 3





    Possible duplicate of Filename dot in front

    – Stephen Kitt
    4 hours ago











  • Don't worry and don't let people accuse you of doing covert operations on your file system. Everyone can type in ls -alF in a command shell, and all hiding goes away. BTW you might want to use alias l='ls --color=tty -alF' and with it just type one single l to see it all. Try echo 'set nu' > .vimrc and voila, you've line numbers in your vi or vim editor. That's all there is to it with "hidden" files.

    – Micha
    4 hours ago

















  • Hello and welcome to the U&L stack exchange site! Please read over the help center to get more information on how to best post to this site. To get to your question, dotfiles or files starting with a dot character are hidden files. They can used for configuration files for applications you have installed or as profiles for your user settings. What files are you having an issue with? Please edit your post to include more context. Thank you!

    – kemotep
    5 hours ago











  • I'm not having a problem with mybfilea never looked at my files I'm getting accused of hiding things in files and also that I have hidden apps and I've never downloaded hidden apps

    – Regina Saucedo
    4 hours ago






  • 3





    Possible duplicate of Filename dot in front

    – Stephen Kitt
    4 hours ago











  • Don't worry and don't let people accuse you of doing covert operations on your file system. Everyone can type in ls -alF in a command shell, and all hiding goes away. BTW you might want to use alias l='ls --color=tty -alF' and with it just type one single l to see it all. Try echo 'set nu' > .vimrc and voila, you've line numbers in your vi or vim editor. That's all there is to it with "hidden" files.

    – Micha
    4 hours ago
















Hello and welcome to the U&L stack exchange site! Please read over the help center to get more information on how to best post to this site. To get to your question, dotfiles or files starting with a dot character are hidden files. They can used for configuration files for applications you have installed or as profiles for your user settings. What files are you having an issue with? Please edit your post to include more context. Thank you!

– kemotep
5 hours ago





Hello and welcome to the U&L stack exchange site! Please read over the help center to get more information on how to best post to this site. To get to your question, dotfiles or files starting with a dot character are hidden files. They can used for configuration files for applications you have installed or as profiles for your user settings. What files are you having an issue with? Please edit your post to include more context. Thank you!

– kemotep
5 hours ago













I'm not having a problem with mybfilea never looked at my files I'm getting accused of hiding things in files and also that I have hidden apps and I've never downloaded hidden apps

– Regina Saucedo
4 hours ago





I'm not having a problem with mybfilea never looked at my files I'm getting accused of hiding things in files and also that I have hidden apps and I've never downloaded hidden apps

– Regina Saucedo
4 hours ago




3




3





Possible duplicate of Filename dot in front

– Stephen Kitt
4 hours ago





Possible duplicate of Filename dot in front

– Stephen Kitt
4 hours ago













Don't worry and don't let people accuse you of doing covert operations on your file system. Everyone can type in ls -alF in a command shell, and all hiding goes away. BTW you might want to use alias l='ls --color=tty -alF' and with it just type one single l to see it all. Try echo 'set nu' > .vimrc and voila, you've line numbers in your vi or vim editor. That's all there is to it with "hidden" files.

– Micha
4 hours ago





Don't worry and don't let people accuse you of doing covert operations on your file system. Everyone can type in ls -alF in a command shell, and all hiding goes away. BTW you might want to use alias l='ls --color=tty -alF' and with it just type one single l to see it all. Try echo 'set nu' > .vimrc and voila, you've line numbers in your vi or vim editor. That's all there is to it with "hidden" files.

– Micha
4 hours ago










1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes


















6














This can likely be explained by a google post by Rob Pike about the origin of hidden files.



In the early days of Unix there was no concept of hidden files but the files . and .. existed to represent the current directory and parent directory. It became annoying to list these files every time ls was used so a simple change was made to the ls program to hide any file beginning with a .. This change, had the unplanned effect of allowing for "hidden files".



As Rob Pike explains:




As a consequence, more lazy programmers started dropping files into everyone's home directory. I don't have all that much stuff installed on the machine I'm using to type this, but my home directory has about a hundred dot files and I don't even know what most of them are or whether they're still needed. Every file name evaluation that goes through my home directory is slowed down by this accumulated sludge.





So to answer your question those hidden files you didn't create are likely some sort of config files from applications you have installed.






share|improve this answer






















    Your Answer








    StackExchange.ready(function()
    var channelOptions =
    tags: "".split(" "),
    id: "106"
    ;
    initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);

    StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function()
    // Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
    if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled)
    StackExchange.using("snippets", function()
    createEditor();
    );

    else
    createEditor();

    );

    function createEditor()
    StackExchange.prepareEditor(
    heartbeatType: 'answer',
    autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
    convertImagesToLinks: false,
    noModals: true,
    showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
    reputationToPostImages: null,
    bindNavPrevention: true,
    postfix: "",
    imageUploader:
    brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
    contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
    allowUrls: true
    ,
    onDemand: true,
    discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
    ,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
    );



    );






    Regina Saucedo is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.









    draft saved

    draft discarded


















    StackExchange.ready(
    function ()
    StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2funix.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f506363%2fdot-in-front-of-file%23new-answer', 'question_page');

    );

    Post as a guest















    Required, but never shown

























    1 Answer
    1






    active

    oldest

    votes








    1 Answer
    1






    active

    oldest

    votes









    active

    oldest

    votes






    active

    oldest

    votes









    6














    This can likely be explained by a google post by Rob Pike about the origin of hidden files.



    In the early days of Unix there was no concept of hidden files but the files . and .. existed to represent the current directory and parent directory. It became annoying to list these files every time ls was used so a simple change was made to the ls program to hide any file beginning with a .. This change, had the unplanned effect of allowing for "hidden files".



    As Rob Pike explains:




    As a consequence, more lazy programmers started dropping files into everyone's home directory. I don't have all that much stuff installed on the machine I'm using to type this, but my home directory has about a hundred dot files and I don't even know what most of them are or whether they're still needed. Every file name evaluation that goes through my home directory is slowed down by this accumulated sludge.





    So to answer your question those hidden files you didn't create are likely some sort of config files from applications you have installed.






    share|improve this answer



























      6














      This can likely be explained by a google post by Rob Pike about the origin of hidden files.



      In the early days of Unix there was no concept of hidden files but the files . and .. existed to represent the current directory and parent directory. It became annoying to list these files every time ls was used so a simple change was made to the ls program to hide any file beginning with a .. This change, had the unplanned effect of allowing for "hidden files".



      As Rob Pike explains:




      As a consequence, more lazy programmers started dropping files into everyone's home directory. I don't have all that much stuff installed on the machine I'm using to type this, but my home directory has about a hundred dot files and I don't even know what most of them are or whether they're still needed. Every file name evaluation that goes through my home directory is slowed down by this accumulated sludge.





      So to answer your question those hidden files you didn't create are likely some sort of config files from applications you have installed.






      share|improve this answer

























        6












        6








        6







        This can likely be explained by a google post by Rob Pike about the origin of hidden files.



        In the early days of Unix there was no concept of hidden files but the files . and .. existed to represent the current directory and parent directory. It became annoying to list these files every time ls was used so a simple change was made to the ls program to hide any file beginning with a .. This change, had the unplanned effect of allowing for "hidden files".



        As Rob Pike explains:




        As a consequence, more lazy programmers started dropping files into everyone's home directory. I don't have all that much stuff installed on the machine I'm using to type this, but my home directory has about a hundred dot files and I don't even know what most of them are or whether they're still needed. Every file name evaluation that goes through my home directory is slowed down by this accumulated sludge.





        So to answer your question those hidden files you didn't create are likely some sort of config files from applications you have installed.






        share|improve this answer













        This can likely be explained by a google post by Rob Pike about the origin of hidden files.



        In the early days of Unix there was no concept of hidden files but the files . and .. existed to represent the current directory and parent directory. It became annoying to list these files every time ls was used so a simple change was made to the ls program to hide any file beginning with a .. This change, had the unplanned effect of allowing for "hidden files".



        As Rob Pike explains:




        As a consequence, more lazy programmers started dropping files into everyone's home directory. I don't have all that much stuff installed on the machine I'm using to type this, but my home directory has about a hundred dot files and I don't even know what most of them are or whether they're still needed. Every file name evaluation that goes through my home directory is slowed down by this accumulated sludge.





        So to answer your question those hidden files you didn't create are likely some sort of config files from applications you have installed.







        share|improve this answer












        share|improve this answer



        share|improve this answer










        answered 4 hours ago









        Jesse_bJesse_b

        13.4k23370




        13.4k23370




















            Regina Saucedo is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.









            draft saved

            draft discarded


















            Regina Saucedo is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.












            Regina Saucedo is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.











            Regina Saucedo is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.














            Thanks for contributing an answer to Unix & Linux Stack Exchange!


            • Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!

            But avoid


            • Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.

            • Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.

            To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.




            draft saved


            draft discarded














            StackExchange.ready(
            function ()
            StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2funix.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f506363%2fdot-in-front-of-file%23new-answer', 'question_page');

            );

            Post as a guest















            Required, but never shown





















































            Required, but never shown














            Required, but never shown












            Required, but never shown







            Required, but never shown

































            Required, but never shown














            Required, but never shown












            Required, but never shown







            Required, but never shown







            Popular posts from this blog

            Möglingen Índice Localización Historia Demografía Referencias Enlaces externos Menú de navegación48°53′18″N 9°07′45″E / 48.888333333333, 9.129166666666748°53′18″N 9°07′45″E / 48.888333333333, 9.1291666666667Sitio web oficial Mapa de Möglingen«Gemeinden in Deutschland nach Fläche, Bevölkerung und Postleitzahl am 30.09.2016»Möglingen

            Virtualbox - Configuration error: Querying “UUID” failed (VERR_CFGM_VALUE_NOT_FOUND)“VERR_SUPLIB_WORLD_WRITABLE” error when trying to installing OS in virtualboxVirtual Box Kernel errorFailed to open a seesion for the virtual machineFailed to open a session for the virtual machineUbuntu 14.04 LTS Virtualbox errorcan't use VM VirtualBoxusing virtualboxI can't run Linux-64 Bit on VirtualBoxUnable to insert the virtual optical disk (VBoxguestaddition) in virtual machine for ubuntu server in win 10VirtuaBox in Ubuntu 18.04 Issues with Win10.ISO Installation

            Antonio De Lisio Carrera Referencias Menú de navegación«Caracas: evolución relacional multipleja»«Cuando los gobiernos subestiman a las localidades: L a Iniciativa para la Integración de la Infraestructura Regional Suramericana (IIRSA) en la frontera Colombo-Venezolana»«Maestría en Planificación Integral del Ambiente»«La Metrópoli Caraqueña: Expansión Simplificadora o Articulación Diversificante»«La Metrópoli Caraqueña: Expansión Simplificadora o Articulación Diversificante»«Conózcanos»«Caracas: evolución relacional multipleja»«La Metrópoli Caraqueña: Expansión Simplificadora o Articulación Diversificante»