mac OS X stupidity

hidden files. the OS doesn't show them. and there is no quickie toggle to display them. which is normally not an issue, since most people don't need to see them, and this is meant to protect the files from inadvertant deletion.

but there is one obvious circumstance in which one does need to see them: web development. .htaccess and .htpassword for example.

luckily underneath the mac GUI lies a unix operating system, so one can set the files to display via the terminal. but i don't want to see them all the time, just when i am working on web stuff. and i kinda like finding native mac solutions for such problems.

i ended up creating two automator actions:

drag Run Shell Script into a new workflow. type:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
osascript -e ‘tell application “Finder” to quit’;
osascript -e ‘tell application “Finder” to activate’;

save workflow as finder plugin with a name like ShowHidden.

now change TRUE to FALSE in the first line up there.

save workflow as finder plugin with a name like HideHidden.

they both show up in the right-click context menu under More -> Automator.

raise your voices

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very productive today; started to get a handle on a complex install i'm doing; automated tools didn't work, but i figured out how to do it manually.