How can I see invisible files?

See if these Terminal commands work.

Hidden files - show: defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -boolean true ; killall Finder

Hidden files - hide: defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE -boolean false ; killall Finder

Cmd-shift-.

Repeat to hide files.

If you don't open the folder, it won’t create the file, so if you can manage your workflow to not open the folder until you’ve processed the files, you might be able to avoid having to delete them.

I imagine that may not be possible, but I can envision workflows where you just dump files into a folder, then process the entire folder.

Perhaps there is is a setting in the utility to ignore certain files.

Ok, first a simple one to just Delete the .DS_Store files on a selected folder (or folders).

• Open Automator and create a New Service -- cmd-N, then select Service as the type.

  You should see a Library pane on the left and a blank workflow pane on the right.

• At the top of the workflow pane, set it to:

  Service receives selected folders in Finder

• From the Library pane, select Utilities
• From the Actions list, drag the Run Shell Script Action into the workflow pane
  • Leave the Shell: /bin/bash
  • Set Pass input: as arguments
• Replace the code for the shell script with:

for f in "$@"
do
  find "$f" -name ".DS_Store" -exec rm -f {} \;
done

Save the Service as something like "Delete DS_Store"

Here is a screen capture of the completed Service:

To Use the Service:

In the Finder, right-click on a folder and choose "Delete DS_Store" from the Services submenu.

FWIW, you can use "Find Any File" or "EasyFind" to search and find invisible .DS_Store files.

If you can’t configure the utility to ignore the .DS_Store files, it would likely be better time spent building an Automator service that you can run on the folder to delete the file before processing the folder.

I’m not with my Mac at the moment, so I can’t offer a workflow to use. I imagine, based on the inability to see the file using cmd-shift-., it will need to use rm command in bash, possibly with find.

With the Automator solution, you’d just have to right-click on the folder and choose the service from the Services menu.

On another tack, does the PDF utility offer any support for some pre-process functions. If so, the same routine used in the Automator Service could be used to clean the folder before the utility processes the files.

Additionally, it may be possible to call the utility from the command line, you might be able to run a script that cleans the folder, then runs the utility to process the files.

What is the name of the PDF Utility? If I can get my hands on it, I might be able to come up with a solution.

Well as I mentioned you can locate .DS_Store files with the above mentioned Apps. You can search a particular folder and then delete them. This is a screen of Find Any File.

EasyFind – Spotlight Replacement

Find Any File

The .DS_Store files are application/octet-stream charset=binary, whereas hidden folders (inode/directory charset=binary) and text files (text/* charset=us-ascii) are not filtered.

Marja E wrote:

One of my pdf utilities won't work until I remove the .DS_store file from the relevant folder.

FWIW, that doesn't make much sense. The only thing the .DS_Store files do is save the size and view, etc. of Finder windows. What PDF Utility would this be?

Coherent PDF? If so, there isn’t a method to exclude files, but I think I can still make a Service that will clean the folder and run cpdf.

Can you post all of the commands you use to process the folder?

I won‘t be able to work on it for a couple of days as I am without a Mac.

If you pass it file names, does it fail, or is it just when passing the folder with -idir?

I think I can make both things work with a right-click on either the folder or if you select multiple files.

Is the shortname something you make up each time? I think I can have it ask you for the name to use.

FWIW, "command-shift-." does not show .DS_Store files in Sierra or High Sierra.

FWIW, "command-shift-." does not show .DS_Store files in Sierra or High Sierra.

Interesting...

I guess. 😎