I have a directory, let's say its name is direct in which has multiple files whose names are .xyz, .abc, .klm and .etk4 etc. Is there a way to make all those hidden files visible at the same time instead of one by one? I know this question has been asked before here but I did not get the answer. I hope somebody can explain it to me in a simple way since I am not much familiar with linux.
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Watzinki
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1If their names are `file1`, `file2`, `file3` and `file4`, then they are not hidden files. – Charles Duffy Mar 14 '14 at 21:54
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How are the files hidden, if their name does not start with a `.`? – abligh Mar 14 '14 at 21:55
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sorry I forgot to put "dot"before name of the files in my questions.They are supposed to be like this **.file1**, **.file2**, **.file3** and **.file4** – Watzinki Mar 14 '14 at 21:58
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What is wrong with e.g. `ls -a`? – vonbrand Mar 15 '14 at 01:19
1 Answers
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for file in .[^.]*
do
mv "${file}" "${file#.}"
done
${var#prefix} expands to the value of $var with the initial prefix removed.
Barmar
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Thanks Barmar for you reply.I must have clarified everything in my question. I edited it now. Hope it is more clear now. – Watzinki Mar 14 '14 at 22:19
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I've updated my answer to use a more general wildcard. The important thing is to use a wildcard that doesn't match `.` and `..`, since those represent the current and parent directory, and you don't want to rename them. – Barmar Mar 14 '14 at 22:22