directory visible from terminal but not from Finder!

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Level 2

221 points

directory visible from terminal but not from Finder!

I've got a folder in my file tree (on an Xserve running 10.4) that I was using to store some files, accessing it generally through AFP from my desktop machine. All of a sudden, it disappeared - Finder running on the Xserve cannot see it. But in Terminal, I can see it just fine. Originally, the last letter in the permissions string revealed by "ls -l" was a "t" - sticky bit. I don't know how it got there, so I got rid of it by "chmod o-t" but it's still not visible! Can someone tell me (A) how I can fix this so the thing is visible by Finder, and (B) is this perhaps indicative of some sort of more general file system corruption? If so, what utility do people recommend to check it?

Thanks!

Mike Levin

G5, Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Posted on Jul 5, 2006 9:09 AM

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Answer 1

Niel

Community+ 2026

Level 10

742,937 points

Jul 5, 2006 10:20 PM in response to Michael Levin

Open the Script Editor in the /Applications/AppleScript/ folder, and enter the following:

tell application "System Events"
set visible of alias "path:to:folder" to true
end tell

Press the Run button to reveal the folder; restarting the Finder afterwards may be necessary. The path to the folder needs to be delimited by colons. If the folder is currently open in the frontmost Finder window, you can use:

tell application "Finder"
set the_alias to folder of window 1 as alias
end tell
tell application "System Events"
set visible of the_alias to true
end tell

Restarting the Finder is accomplished by using:

tell application "Finder" to quit

and then clicking on its icon in the Dock. The quit statement can be placed inside the first tell block in the second script on a separate line.

(13913)

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Answer 2

Camelot

Level 9

58,911 points

Jul 5, 2006 10:32 AM in response to Michael Levin

There are many files and folders that the Finder won't show - /etc, /var and /usr are just three examples.

WIthout knowing the name of the folder in question it's hard to know if that's the problem.

In addition to that there are additional flags/attributes that can be set on any file/folder that tells the Finder to hide it. If you have the Developer Tools installed you can use GetFileInfo to find out what attributes are set on this folder, and 'SetFile' to change them (use SetFile -v foldername to clear the invisible flag).

In any case, even if it's hidden by default you should be able to navigate to it through the Finder's Go->Go to Folder option and typing its path, or by using the 'open' command in Terminal (e.g. 'open Foldername').

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Answer 3

Michael Levin Author

Level 2

221 points

Jul 5, 2006 11:16 AM in response to Camelot

There are many files and folders that the Finder
won't show - /etc, /var and /usr are just three
examples.
WIthout knowing the name of the folder in question
it's hard to know if that's the problem.

yep; this wasn't one of those - this was a normal user directory I created in one of the partitions, and was using it for a month to store files. It suddenly disappeared one day! The name was perhaps unfortunate: I had called it "Temporary items", which I now see resembles the ".Temporary Items" file present in some directories. I wonder if that's part of the problem... Anyway, I've renamed it (in Terminal) but it didn't help.

In addition to that there are additional
flags/attributes that can be set on any file/folder
that tells the Finder to hide it. If you have the
Developer Tools installed you can use GetFileInfo to
find out what attributes are set on this folder, and
'SetFile' to change them (use SetFile -v foldername
to clear the invisible flag).

I think I don't have that on my server. Where do I get them?

In any case, even if it's hidden by default you
should be able to navigate to it through the Finder's
Go->Go to Folder option and typing its path, or by
using the 'open' command in Terminal (e.g. 'open
Foldername').

Yep - that works! Any ideas how to un-hide it, and do you think the fact that it just happened like that indicate more serious problem in our file system?

Thanks,

Mike

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