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Idea #7833: Windows hidden files should be hidden in Nautilus, too.
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Written by Endolith the 29 Apr 08 at 14:22.
Category: System.
Related project:
Nothing/Others.
Status: New
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Rationale
In Ubuntu, we can read many file systems, like FAT flash drives, CD-ROMs, and we now have read-write access to NTFS filesystems on dual-boot systems.
When navigating a drive created by Windows, MacOS, or other operating systems, system files that would normally be hidden in Windows Explorer or on a Mac (Thumbs.db, desktop.ini, __MACOSX, Word temporary files) are still visible in Nautilus, cluttering up every directory.
In UNIX-based systems, hidden files ("dotfiles") are designated by dotted file names like ".something". These are not displayed when viewing files with Nautilus or using "ls", for instance, but can be viewed by enabling "Show Hidden Files" in the View menu or using "ls -A".
FAT and related filesystems have hidden files, too, which are treated by Windows tools exactly the same way. They are designated by a "Hidden" file attribute flag, though, not by their filename.
You can delete the files, but they'll just be recreated as soon as the drive is opened on a native machine (and on OS X, these contain valuable metadata that you don't want to delete).
You can hide them in Nautilus alone with the .hidden file convention, but this has to be done manually, and you need to create a separate file for every directory.
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Propose your solution
Attachments
Duplicates
Comments
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U53R
wrote on the 29 Apr 08 at 15:26
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I dont see any need for hiding a "thumbs.db" for example, when it has no effect on linux distro's any ways. The only purpose this serves is making folders of windows content look "prettier" while they are being modified and or re-packaged on a linux machine.
The less that is hidden from the user, THE BETTER.
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lsdark
wrote on the 29 Apr 08 at 16:08
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just put the names of the files you want to be hidden in a .hidden file. that's it.
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droetker
wrote on the 29 Apr 08 at 19:41
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-1
Stay clean, don't mess Linux.
Windows hides hideen files, "system" files, files like boot.ini which is none of both, thumbs.db, desktop.ini...
lots of exceptions.
Better have a concept that is small and simple.
.hidden is everything you need.
Not to be like "we always did it like that, we'll ever do it like that." - but if a concept is good, why change it? just to make it better - and THAT (hiding thumbs.db) would be no improvement at all. it would result in many lost¬found thumbs.dbs ;-)
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this is not Windows, actually it's bad practice to hide files and don't know what is happening.
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Endolith
wrote on the 30 Apr 08 at 04:59
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For those of you who aren't aware, Ubuntu has the ability to open file systems other than ext3, like, for instance, FAT USB flash drives.
FAT drives have files on them which are hidden using system flags instead of dotted filenames. Linux should treat these exactly the same way it treats those with dotted filenames.
(Or, god forbid, an NTFS-3G Windows XP partition on a dual-boot system, like mine.)
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Endolith
wrote on the 30 Apr 08 at 05:00
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And .hidden is an unacceptable solution, since it requires hand-editing a file for every folder on the FAT partition.
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phonixor
wrote on the 30 Apr 08 at 07:20
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not to mention that windows will really enjoy the new dots for its files...
(windows gui doesnt even allow files to begin with "." ;p only command line... very annoying for eclipse projects... silly billy)
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GNU/Linux is not Windows.
-1
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wearzeep
wrote on the 30 Apr 08 at 17:23
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Hiding the files that should be hided adds consistency when browsing drives that are used by both linux and windows, for instance.
Definitely +1
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Are you "Linux is not Windows" guys serious? You've never mounted a CD or Flash drive that was formatted in Windows?
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+1
This would make using a friends USB or finding files on a windows partition easier by far.
Linux may not be windows- but Ubuntu aims for it to be clean and user friendly.
There could be a simple option in nautilus for those that want to see these files.
I think windows is far to zealous about it's system file creations - spawning everywhere. So why do we need to see them?
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Endolith
wrote on the 26 Aug 08 at 02:27
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@Lightbreeze
There is already a "simple option in nautilus for those that want to see these files". It's called "Show Hidden Files", in the View menu. :)
Files that are hidden in Windows filesystems (hidden flag) should be treated exactly the same as files that are hidden in Linux filesystems (.names). If you want to see them, use this View option.
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Endolith
wrote on the 26 Aug 08 at 15:14
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@phonixor
"not to mention that windows will really enjoy the new dots for its files..."
Huh?? Did you not read the description? Why would anyone use dot files on Windows if it has a hidden flag in the file system?
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gkffjcs
wrote on the 15 Oct 08 at 05:05
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It seems like most of you are missing the point.
It is quite common for most people to have a dual boot system, it is also quite common for people to want to view there Windows file systems from Linux. With the recent advent of the ntfs-3g driver viewing windows files from Linux is more common. This issue this post is covering is how Linux treats hidden files in windows. Basically should Linux respect the hidden flag in the Windows file system? I believe it should.
There are several posts that don't seem to understand this.
Windows makes many hidden files, in fact it makes two in every directory, if not more. It will make a thumbs.db file, a desktop.ini file, and there are also others created by some programs. These are files that are not displayed by the windows user interface, so why should they be displayed by the linux ui?
@bert.ubuntu, this isn't about arbitrairly hiding, or renameing files, this is about respecting windows' request to not have these files displayed. Windows doesn't show these files, there is if anything more damage posed by users in ubuntu accidently deleting windows system files, since in linux they aren't hidden.
I believe Endolith is exactly right, there is no reason why linux users should or want to see hidden ntfs, or vfat files which they are browsing normally from linux the same as from windows.
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twocool
wrote on the 24 Oct 08 at 18:33
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If ubuntu acted in different ways in fat32/ntfs and in ext3/reiserfs/etc it wouldn't even be consistent with itself.
-1
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Endolith
wrote on the 24 Oct 08 at 20:15
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If ubuntu acted in different ways in fat32/ntfs and in ext3/reiserfs/etc it wouldn't even be consistent with itself.
Huh?? I am asking for it to act the same way between file systems. Hidden files should be hidden, no matter what file system you are looking at.
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Kelder
wrote on the 18 Feb 09 at 14:29
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I don't really see the harm if this was an optional plugin, but do understand the resentment and complications. However, this is just a linux standard, hide with the dot, and why not respect that? I also see the linux trash folders in windows explorer after all.
But I feel where you're coming from with this. Maybe it helps to know that there is a second way to hide files and folders in linux. You can place a textfile called ".hidden" in a directory and in it you can list files and folders you want to hide. So if you place a file called ".hidden" in the root of an ntfs partition that lists on separate lines 'System Volume Information' and 'RECYCLER', then at least those directories won't show up in Nautilus.
You could add more files or folders to the list, like your Windows directory, or even list individual system files. Toggling the hidden view (CTRL-H) will show both the listed files and the ".hidden" file again. Of course this will add one more non-hidden 'dot' file when you're in Windows... Hope this partial solution satisfies you.
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Endolith
wrote on the 18 Feb 09 at 14:58
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this is just a linux standard, hide with the dot, and why not respect that?
When did anyone say not to respect that?
And as I already explained in both the idea rationale and in the comments, .hidden is not a solution, since it requires a separate file in every directory, and needs to be edited by hand. There is no way to say "hide all Thumbs.db files in any directory".
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Kelder
wrote on the 18 Feb 09 at 15:23
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Sorry I missed that, in my defense I confused this thread with another.
>> When did anyone say not to respect that?
That was regarding the linux and osx hidden files showing up in windows explorer with no way to hide them.
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Endolith
wrote on the 20 Feb 09 at 17:13
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That was regarding the linux and osx hidden files showing up in windows explorer with no way to hide them.
Doesn't that belong on http://www.windows7taskforce.com/, then? ;)
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For comparison, when you view EXT3 partitions in Windows, the .dotfiles are treated as though they had the hidden flag. I want the reverse to be true, too.
"The driver treats files with file names that start with a dot "." character as hidden." - http://www.fs-driver.org/faq.html
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I think it's terrible that Linux doesn't respect Windows hidden files. I don't think we can honestly say that Linux supports FAT and NTFS until the making and viewing of hidden files has been fixed at a kernel level.
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Solution #3 "Make the dot a special character meaning 'hidden' when put at the start of files."
Uhhh.... it already does that.
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@Endolith
No, the dot is literal rather than symbolic. I am proposing to change it to symbolic, which would make it compatible with Windows.
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Is there a way to fix it a bit better by now? e.g. is there a configuration option or gconf option or configuration file that I can modify to make desktop.ini and ~* files (temporary files created by Microsoft Word) hidden? It makes it so much more troublesome for a Linux user who work with shared file system (samba) that are used by other Windows users.
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