Re: [Linuxcommand-discuss] finding hidden files

[William S. <wes...@co...>]

On Sunday 08 September 2002 01:27 pm, Steve Sanders wrote:
> Greetings all!  I am new to the list so I apologize if this question is out
> of place because it is too basic.  I am taking a class at college on Linux.
>  We are completing a lab, and one of the questions was to determine how
> many hidden files there are in the /etc directory.  I found the answer
> using: ls -a
> I am just wondering if there is a way to just display the hidden files.  I
> tried using: ls -a | grep .*
> but it seemed to ignore the . and just display everything.  I tried several
> other things as well, but everything seemed to just ignore the ".".  So,
> does anyone know a way to just display the hidden files in the /etc
> directory?  Thanks for the help.
>
> Steve

If you want to know the number of hidden files in /etc and all of its 
subdirectories, try:

find /etc -type f -name ".*" | wc -l

If you just want the number of hidden files in /etc (not its subdirectories), 
try:

find /etc -type f -name ".*" -maxdepth 1 | wc -l

To use ls to get an approximate list of the hidden files (plus the . and .. 
entries), try:

ls -d .*

-- 
|||||  William Shotts, Jr. (bshotts AT panix DOT com)
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