Changing permissions on a hidden folder via terminal/bash

Question

Changing permissions on a hidden folder via terminal/bash

i have an application that writes data to a folder in /usr/local/xyz file name.

my question is how do i change the permissions on the file to be "not hidden".

when i use terminal to get to the file it does not show up in the ls command of the ~/local directory.

when i open the application that uses this file it is clearly visible. I have checked the application and there is no way to change those settings within the software

im not overly proficent with UNIX but can fumble through it. the goal is to share this directory/file across the network for outher users to access and VIEW this data.

Thank you
James

Imac G5, Mac OS X (10.3.9), airport wireless and network shares in a windows environment

Posted on Jan 5, 2006 2:19 PM

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Answer 1

Jan 5, 2006 10:22 PM in response to James Gordon1

The file doesn't show up in 'ls ~/local' because '~/local' is not '/usr/local'. '~/local' is '/Users/ yourshortname/local'. Try 'ls /usr/local' -- you should find your file.

I think it's going to be a bit difficult to share /usr/local; that whole directory is "hidden" (in the sense that Finder won't display it by default). There's a tool in the Developer's Tools (on your OS X installation disk);

sudo /Developer/Tools/SetFile -a V <file>

which toggles the visibility of a folder or file -- you can try that...

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Answer 2

Jan 6, 2006 12:51 AM in response to James Gordon1

Hi James,

/usr/local/ is not really hidden. dot files are the traditional way to hide a file in a unix file system. In order to see them you need to add additional options to the list command. The core of Mac OS X is based on a unix operating system. The Finder application is the traditional way for mac users to view the file system. Apple purposefully hides parts of the file system in the Finder application in a file called .hidden. You can view the whole file system by changing the Finder applications plist (preference file). Open the Terminal application and issue this command (You can copy and paste the command into the Terminal window)-

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles '1'

log out then log back in- all the files should be visible.
To change it back to default, use this command-

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles '0'

Again, log out then log back in. Or you can kill the Finder and restart it.

I would like to recommend that you avoid sharing in the /usr/local/ directory.

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