How do I show hidden files on Lion?

open terminal and write

defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE

and now relaunch finder by typing

killall Finder

done.

Did'nt mean to post. Sorry. :-)

I did the following in Terminal to unhide ~/Library which some nice person posted somewhere. If you know your file name, this should work for any hidden file.

chflags nohidden ~/Library

Bea/CA

Hi i know that one but for me i prefer to unhide file by there extension. Like my js and css file are hidden. I don't want to unhide all one by one. Does it have a way to do that by extension.

Thank's

Alain

Download and use a free utility like TinkerTool: http://www.bresink.com/osx/0TinkerTool/download.php5

I don't see this feature inside that software, it only have the show all hidden files. What i want is seeing some of them like my css js files which are hidden. I don't want to see all like .DS_Store. Finally i just want to develop web site and i believe that cs and js files are some of the most important, why hide them? But the solution can be to activate or deactivate by file extension which seem to be more natural if they want to hide some file like that and simpify the way to reactivate. Anyway they all ready do thing like open file base on they're extension.

Alain

After using the method posted by abhas, how do I rehide the folders?

The response was intended for the OP. It's more convenient tha using Terminal commands.

FALSE

Tony T1 wrote:

FALSE

Entering, "defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE," followed by, "killall Finder" in Terminal, versus pressing a couple of buttons in TinkerTool, I think not. IMHO

Tony T1,

Oops, now I see what you were suggesting, "FALSE" in lieu of "TRUE" at the end of the Terminal line. Sorry, took it literally at first as a response to me instead of "stewartfromhere"

Lanny

Lanny wrote:

Tony T1 wrote:

FALSE

Entering, "defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE," followed by, "killall Finder" in Terminal, versus pressing a couple of buttons in TinkerTool, I think not. IMHO

Can also use an applescript saved as an App:

set answer to the button returned of (display dialog ("Finder Hidden Files:") buttons {"Show", "Hide", "Cancel"} with icon caution default button 3 with title "Finder Hidden Files")

if answer is "Show" then

tell application "Finder" to quit

do shell script "defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles 1"

delay 2

tell application "Finder" to run

else

tell application "Finder" to quit

do shell script "defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles 0"

delay 2

tell application "Finder" to run

end if

Another AppleScript to toggle hidden files visibility (best saved as an app):

try

set visSet to (do shell script "defaults read com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles") as integer as boolean

on error

set visSet to false-- default setting

end try

do shell script "defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool " & (not visSet) as text

tell application "Finder" to quit

delay 1

do shell script "open /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app"

To enable hidden files/folders in finder windows:

1. Open Finder
2. Open the Utilities folder
3. Open a terminal window
4. Copy and paste the following line in:

   1	defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles YES

5. Press return
6. Now hold ‘alt’ on the keyboard and right click on the Finder icon
7. Click on Relaunch

You should find you will now be able to see any hidden files or folders. One you are done, perform the steps above however, replace the terminal command in step 4 with:

To just see your Library Files -

Open Finder, click on "Go"... hold the Alt key down. Magically "Library" will appear in the list...