How do you find invisible files in OSX?

[Curtis Thompson]

hello…

hmm – don’t know how to turn on invisibles, but that’d be kinda messy anyway – there are a ton of those files in your home dir typically, so you could also try this alternative:

1. open terminal (applications -> utilities)
2. type/paste the following (sans quotes): “mv ~/.ssh/known_hosts ~/KNOWN”
3. hit return
4. go to your finder and you’ll see the file “KNOWN” in your home dir.
5. do what you need with text edit
6. go back to terminal and type: “mv ~/KNOWN .ssh/known_hosts”
7. hit return

and you’ll be done. basically you’re just using basic unix commands via terminal to rename the file so that you can read it via the default finder view and then putting it back…

all this file does is store the keys and ips for known hosts that you’ve connected to via ssh – even if you screw up and erase it, all you’ll need to do is agree to store the keys as you connect to each server in the future and this file will make itself again over time…

sitruc

[Kathlyn Lindeboom]

Thanks Curtis. We’re using CyberDuck for SFTP now and somehow, I screwed something up, so every file I move pops up a permission dialog. The author of CyberDuck told me all I needed to do was delete that file and relaunch the program, but I can’t figure out where the file is so that I can delete it.

Is there a command that just deletes the file instead of the roundabout way of asking where it is? Or is it something that has multiple lists on it and I really do need to edit the file?

Oh, by the way, how’s that cold you had? Hope you’re feeling better.

Kathlyn Lindeboom
The Mistress of Mmmooooo!

[Curtis Thompson]

hello…

ya – you can open the terminal and type:

rm ~/.ssh/known_hosts

and hit return – that’ll remove the file and start you over…

cold went away but i found a new one to take its place.. :-/

sitruc

[Kathlyn Lindeboom]

[Curtis Thompson] “cold went away but i found a new one to take its place.. :-/”

That’s no fun. Ron’s been fighting an ear infection again. It seems a nasty flu bug is going around this year.

Thanks so much for your help.

Kathlyn Lindeboom
The Mistress of Mmmooooo!

[Kathlyn Lindeboom]

Just wanted to let you know that it worked perfectly. Thanks again and get well Curtis.

Kathlyn Lindeboom
The Mistress of Mmmooooo!

[Tony! Hulette]

The standard way to do it in all versions of OS X (it’s changed its looks in various versions) is to do a find (command + F), then select “visibility” and “invisible” from the Search Criteria pulldowns in the window that opens up (“Kind” and/or “Last opened” are the defaults). You can select the name you are searching for as a second criteria.

Tony!

[Gunleik Groven]

You could also download TinkerTool to turn visibility on and off in a blink, and to force restart Finder among others.

It’s pretty kool.

Gunleik