Forums | MacLife

bystander85 · 2005-01-18 10:43 am

I noticed, in one of my applications, in the Open box, when I'm searching for a file, I notice my desktop has various dot files, such as:

.$$ Stuffit Temp
.BAHtemp
.DS_Store
.localized

How do I get rid of these files? What exactly are dot files? I can deduce what the Stuffit Temp is, but i'm not quite sure about DS_Store and localized. Are any of these essential/supposed to be there? Any information will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Fracai · 2005-01-18 12:37 pm

.DS_Store contains info about folder contents. position, size, view type, icon position, stuff like that
.localized seems to imply that it holds info about language localization. i've never seen anything specific about it
.BAHtemp i've never heard of

dotted files are invisible unix files
Mac OS X being based on unix allows it as an alternative block to visibility

Fracai · 2005-01-18 12:38 pm

you can either turn on "Show invisible files in the Finder" under Finder prefs or use the terminal to delete them

caol · 2005-01-18 12:42 pm

UNIX uses a dot in front of a file name in order to hide the file from normal operations. The two 'temp' files, .$$ StuffIt Temp and .BAHtemp belong to applications and the .DS_Store and .localized files belong to the OS.

If you use the Terminal, you can use the command 'ls -a' to see all the files, including those hidden with a dot, in any directory. If you execute this command in your home directory, you'll see that there a lot of hidden files and directories, most of these are concerned with your specific settings for UNIX type applications (Terminal setup, X11 options, Java etc. etc.) and the operating system. (I've got a heap of them for stuff I've installed from Fink)

Rarely do they take up a lot of space and the .DS_Store files are ubiquitous, you'll find one in every directory. I believe that they're a part of Finder operations.

By and large I'd just leave them alone and let their parent applications take care of them.

bystander85 · 2005-01-18 12:55 pm

What is the delete command?

Fracai · 2005-01-18 1:03 pm

rm <file>
rm -r <folder>

be careful smile

bystander85 · 2005-01-18 1:15 pm

Well, I'm deleting the Stuffit Temps...a while back there was an error extracting the rar the mp3 was in and I think the files are resultant of this complication (it shows the mp3 name inside the . temp directory).

bystander85 · 2005-01-18 1:45 pm

Hmmm...?

rm -r ".$$ StuffIt Temp 1102466217"
rm: .6003 StuffIt Temp 1102466217: No such file or directory

obtuse · 2005-01-18 2:11 pm

Hmmm...?

rm -r ".$$ StuffIt Temp 1102466217"
rm: .6003 StuffIt Temp 1102466217: No such file or directory

its likely not understanding the spaces. First, there shouldn't be quotes around the file name. Second, the terminal doesn't understand the spaces in the file name. To fix this, start typing .$$ then hit tab and that should autocomplete the file name

Fracai · 2005-01-18 3:05 pm

that's what the quotes are for. to fix the spaces issue.

but you're right, tabbing is a better way. or type the rm command and then drag the file into the terminal window

obtuse · 2005-01-18 7:45 pm

that's what the quotes are for. to fix the spaces issue.

but you're right, tabbing is a better way. or type the rm command and then drag the file into the terminal window

Quotes fix that issue? Neat. yet that makes things too simple. I demand that the terminal be as arcane as possible.

Jasoco · 2005-01-19 7:26 am

Curious what the BAH is from.. BAH is probably the initials of the app. Can you think of an app that has them?

beorn · 2005-02-20 3:55 am

The above doesn't work because $$ is a special variable name that gets expanded to the shell's process id (PID); note the number instead of $$ in the error message. Using TAB for completion is good because it adds the necessary quotes. You can use \$\$ to quote the $$, or you can enclose the whole file name in single quotes (apostrophe). Variable name expansion doesn't happen inside of single quotes, but does inside of double quotes.

unresort · 2005-02-20 5:56 am

.$$ Stuffit Temp
is a file that you began un-stuffing and did not finish. Stuffit allows resumable un-stuffing, so it has saved the .temp file for you to finish from the original .sitx'd file.

mattis · 2005-03-10 6:26 pm

Jasoco wrote:
Curious what the BAH is from.. BAH is probably the initials of the app. Can you think of an app that has them?

The built-in zip-application is responsible. When it gets stuck while extracting a file it creates a hidden folder with what I belive is the partly extracted file.

ViralDoctor · 2005-03-10 6:37 pm

BAH - BOM Archive Helper
/System/Library/Coreservices/BOMArchiveHelper

Forums | MacLife

#1 2005-01-18 10:43 am

Hidden "dot" files on desktop.

#2 2005-01-18 12:37 pm

Re: Hidden "dot" files on desktop.

#3 2005-01-18 12:38 pm

Re: Hidden "dot" files on desktop.

#4 2005-01-18 12:42 pm

Re: Hidden "dot" files on desktop.

#5 2005-01-18 12:55 pm

Re: Hidden "dot" files on desktop.

#6 2005-01-18 1:03 pm

Re: Hidden "dot" files on desktop.

#7 2005-01-18 1:15 pm

Re: Hidden "dot" files on desktop.

#8 2005-01-18 1:45 pm

Re: Hidden "dot" files on desktop.

#9 2005-01-18 2:11 pm

Re: Hidden "dot" files on desktop.

#10 2005-01-18 3:05 pm

Re: Hidden "dot" files on desktop.

#11 2005-01-18 7:45 pm

Re: Hidden "dot" files on desktop.

#12 2005-01-19 7:26 am

Re: Hidden "dot" files on desktop.

#13 2005-02-20 3:55 am

Re: Hidden "dot" files on desktop.

#14 2005-02-20 5:56 am

Re: Hidden "dot" files on desktop.

#15 2005-03-10 6:26 pm

Re: Hidden "dot" files on desktop.

Jasoco wrote:

#16 2005-03-10 6:37 pm

Re: Hidden "dot" files on desktop.

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