Booting in Mac OS 9 reveals a bunch of OS X dotfiles, such as .tcsh_history, .CFUserTextEncoding, etc.

Is there a way to make those invisible in OS 9 *also* -- perhaps individually, but preferably on a per-folder basis? So that for instance, when I use OS 9 to access my OS X home directory, it would automatically appear uncluttered by whatever config files have been generated since my last visit?

resedit... resourcerer...etc
those programs mke files invisible

i once saw a drag and drop program that did this...

Thanks... Yes, I realize that ResEdit will allow me to do it file by file. But is there a way I could say: "Automatically hide any and all (past and future) dotfiles in *this particular directory*"?

(For instance, I'd like my home directory to have this hiding property.)

FileFreak will let you make more than 1 item invisible at a time. There is also a get info enhancer for 9 called "snitch" that might let you do something to the folder.

Thanks! I am goiing to investigate these. At first sight it looks like snitch has a plugin which does sort of the opposite of what I want:

"Make Visible": Makes any invisible items in a folder and optionally within sub folders visible.

( http://www.niftyneato.com/Plugins.html )

Meanwhile... I was wondering if those dotfiles couldn't be made (OS 9-)invisible with a daily cron script. Aren't there OS X command line tools (like "Rez"?) that can set the invisible bit? I'm a bit lost in those man pages, so any comments along this line would be very welcome...

Thanks much for the replies so far!

Am not very good with applescript but i think it could be done with one - stick it in the startup items. I'm thinking something along the lines of:

find all files beginning with '.'
set visibility to invisible

I'm sure i'm oversimplifying the logic statements but it's prob the right way of looking at it.

As for a drag and drop to turn items invisible maybe u could modify the script at: http://www.resexcellence.com/applescripts/files.shtml#codes3
or maybe one of the other scripts on that page. They are variations on drag files to change type and creator. Since visibility is just another attribute (ie one of the options in sherlock's customn search) of a file it wouldn't need much to fit the requirements.

Personally, i like to be able to see some of what osx sticks around my HD since it likes to hide stuff all over the place.

Hope that helps

I know of several utilities that do this too. "MacMachBegone!" (shareware ), hides the mach files that are always there when OSX is installed. Just make a ailias and drop it in the startup folder.

Another useful tool is "Unhide utilities" (Freeware). It's a great tool to show ALL hidden files on any drive! Either make them visible or invisible! Find it at http://www.tempel.org/mac/ .

I did mean to add that Unhide utilities will show all OSX hidden files.

When i first started mucking around in OSX, I made some major mistakes that I decided to start over and re-install. But the problems remained because of a mass of invisible files that even initializing didn't get rid of. I used this utility to delete ALL of the . files and be sure to check any other drives.... when accessed in from OSX, .files are added. (.stores , .trashes... ect)

Thanks everyone!

Tom Stiller offered yet another solution, using /Developer/Tools/SetFile: see

http://groups.google.com/groups?threadm=3C69EE8D.7060104@mac.com