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Wednesday, May 19 2004 @ 12:29 AM PDT
Tutorial: Now you see 'em, now you don't: Invisible files in Mac OS X

Originally posted Wednesday, May 19th

by Ted Landau

Even though you can't see them, invisible files are critical to the operation of your Mac. For example, Apple typically makes certain files invisible to reduce the chance that the files are unintentionally deleted or edited. One of the most well known examples of these transparent creatures are the old Classic Mac OS Desktop database files; these are the ones that get rebuilt when you "rebuild the desktop" in OS 9.

Mac OS X expands the use of invisible files far beyond anything attempted by the Classic OS. There are more invisible files in Mac OS X, more ways to make files invisible, and more ways to get in and out of trouble by accessing these files.

In this tutorial article, we'll examine the methods OS X uses to makes files invisible, what and where the major invisible files are, how you can change an item's invisibility status, and how knowing all of this can help in troubleshooting.

This tutorial by MacFixIt Contributing Editor Ted Landau was originally published on MacFixIt as a three-part series. Ted has substantially revised it for Panther compatibility, based on his new Mac OS X troubleshooting book, Mac OS X Help Line.



WHAT MAKES A FILE INVISIBLE IN OS X?

In order for a file to be invisible in OS X, it does not have to drink a magic elixir. But it does have to meet one of the three criteria that the Finder checks in determining a file's status. The following sections describe these criteria; along the way, we also describe how to get any and all invisible files to appear on your desktop.

1. The invisible bit

Every file or folder on your Mac has a set of attributes (or "bits") that determine characteristics of the item. One such attribute i

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