http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/item/7833/
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.

[39 votes] Solution #1: File manager should hide files with hidden flag


[14 votes] Solution #2: Hidden by default, configurable in Preferences


[2 votes] Solution #3: Make '.' a Symbolic Character


[8 votes] Solution #4: Also Allow Hiding of Files


]]> en-us Tue, 29 Apr 2008 14:22:14 +0000 Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:00:43 +0000 QAPoll module http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/7833/
The less that is hidden from the user, THE BETTER.]]> Tue, 29 Apr 2008 15:26:41 +0000 Tue, 29 Apr 2008 16:08:35 +0000
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 ;-)]]> Tue, 29 Apr 2008 19:41:12 +0000 Wed, 30 Apr 2008 04:18:06 +0000
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.)]]> Wed, 30 Apr 2008 04:59:48 +0000 Wed, 30 Apr 2008 05:00:34 +0000
(windows gui doesnt even allow files to begin with "." ;p only command line... very annoying for eclipse projects... silly billy)]]> Wed, 30 Apr 2008 07:20:48 +0000 -1]]> Wed, 30 Apr 2008 09:55:18 +0000 Definitely +1]]> Wed, 30 Apr 2008 17:23:09 +0000 Fri, 02 May 2008 03:19:34 +0000 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?]]> Sat, 23 Aug 2008 10:57:10 +0000
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.]]> Tue, 26 Aug 2008 02:27:34 +0000
"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?]]> Tue, 26 Aug 2008 15:14:35 +0000
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. ]]> Wed, 15 Oct 2008 05:05:04 +0000
-1]]> Fri, 24 Oct 2008 18:33:46 +0000 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.]]> Fri, 24 Oct 2008 20:15:45 +0000
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.]]> Wed, 18 Feb 2009 14:29:16 +0000 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".
]]> Wed, 18 Feb 2009 14:58:44 +0000
>> 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.]]> Wed, 18 Feb 2009 15:23:42 +0000 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? ;)]]> Fri, 20 Feb 2009 17:13:59 +0000
Thread references:
http://www.nabble.com/nautilus---hidden-files-td19787478.html
http://marc.info/?l=linux-fsdevel&m=122366660506480&w=2]]> Thu, 26 Feb 2009 09:56:19 +0000
"The driver treats files with file names that start with a dot "." character as hidden." - http://www.fs-driver.org/faq.html]]> Mon, 02 Mar 2009 23:34:30 +0000 Thu, 03 Sep 2009 13:37:28 +0000
Uhhh.... it already does that.]]> Fri, 04 Sep 2009 01:54:13 +0000
No, the dot is literal rather than symbolic. I am proposing to change it to symbolic, which would make it compatible with Windows.]]> Sun, 06 Sep 2009 18:45:28 +0000 Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:52:07 +0000
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1296378]]> Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:00:43 +0000