I restored the dotfiles with Time Machine but they changed the type from document to unix file. Why?

etresoft wrote:

Those document types may not have any real meaning. What is the content of your .gitignore file?

Here's how it works. A .gitignore file is a plain text file where each line contains a pattern for files/directories to ignore. Generally, this is placed in the root folder of the repository, and that's what I recommend. However, you can put it in any folder in the repository and you can also have multiple .gitignore files. The patterns in the files are relative to the location of that .gitignore file.

Overview:

Introduction

When you make commits in a git repository, you choose which files to stage and commit by using git add FILENAME and then git commit. But what if there are some files that you never want to commit? It's too easy to accidentally commit them (especially if you use git add . to stage all files in the current directory). That's where a .gitignore file comes in handy. It lets Git know that it should ignore certain files and not track them.

From:

https://www.pluralsight.com/guides/how-to-use-gitignore-file

The Terminal and the Finder environment are two separate things. Usually, it is the file extension that determines how a file will appear in the Finder. The command-line environment in the Terminal doesn't care about files extensions. Technically speaking, a file with a dot consists only of a file extension and this can result in unpredictable results in the Finder. Normally, such files are hidden altogether.

There are some hidden attributes that may explain why these files look the way they do. You can use the xattr and/or "ls -al@" tools to inspect them.

WEBMAS wrote:

That helped. And what does it mean? If this is not done for all files, what will happen? I just have thousands of these files.

You have thousands of .gitignore files that you are using from the Finder? Why???

Perhaps it is a different set of attributes. Try this in Terminal:

chmod ugo-x .gitignore_TM

Those document types may not have any real meaning. What is the content of your .gitignore file? If it is functional, the ignore what it looks like in the finder.

You have to explore the attributes using xattr or similar tools.

Then use * or find -exec