Hi all!

I've been using ntfs-3g for years. I need it to access my NTFS shared data partition from Linux. Some time ago, I had the need of changing file permissions, and read this manual. I found quickly the option I was looking for, but also noticed the hide_hid_files and hide_dot_files ones. Simply awesome, finally I could get rid of those annoying $RECICLE.BIN, RECYCLER and System Volume Information folders. Moreover, now I don't need to create dot folders on Linux (Windows doesn't allow folders beginning with a dot) and then hide them on Windows in order to have an OS-independant hidden folder: dot names created on Linux are automatically hidden on Windows, and files/folder hidden on Windows don't appear on Linux (not even with 'ls -a').

Yesterday, I was going to modify a very important script stored in my data partition. Panic! It was not there! After a while, when my heart continued pumping, I used testdisc/photorec to recover data on non-allocated space. OMFG, nothing... Then I had a hunch, went to Windows, set hidden files to be shown, and ufff... that was close. My script was there, hidden, though nobody had hidden it, neither on Windows nor on Linux. "Well, shit happens", I thought. I unhided it and returned to Linux. The file was there, I could modify the lines I wanted. Today I decided to check if the file was still there (maybe another hunch), and guess what? It wasn't!

The file is located in /media/SILO/Linux/software/exoconf (data partition /dev/sda2 is mounted on /media/SILO). File name does not begin with a dot, and I didn't hide it in any way. I can 'ls /media/SILO/Linux/software/exoconf', so the script is there (but 'ls -a /media/SILO/Linux/software/ | grep exoconf' has no results).

Any workaround?

Hi,


Maybe your file can be accessed through another name. What are the outputs (when exoconf appears to be hidden) of :


The "-a" option has no effect when "hide_hid_files" is used. The file system cannot know the "-a" is used, and it does not return hidden files.

Regards

Jean-Pierre

Think I've solved the mystery. I tried creating the text file (actually copying an existing one) /media/SILO/test.txt. Opened it with gedit, added some text and saved it. Pressed F5 to refresh nautilus, et voilà, file was missing. Tried the same with /media/SILO/test4.txt removing hide_dot_files from my fstab (and remounting the partition), and file does not disappear.

If I remember right, many years ago (think I used Mandrake Linux by that time), I used to have lots of weird files when modifying others, say I edited something.txt and ~something.txt or so appeared. Is it possible when you edit a file, changes are stored in some kind of .something.txt (hide_dot_files would set ntfs hidden attribute), then you save it and internally there's a "rm something.txt && mv .something.txt something.txt" (now it's not a dot file, but it's ntfs hidden)? Does it make sense?

If it helps, I include my fstab entry (first one hides files when edited, second one works as I want) and the results of the commands Jean-Pierre said, both for test.txt (hidden after edit) and test4.txt (not hidden):

Hi,


Yes, that is the likely cause (not easy to check because generally the temporary name is a random one). When renaming a file, the "hidden" attribute is kept unchanged. Do you want to test a scenario in which the hidden attribute is set according to the latest name, when hide_dot_files is set ?

This file is indeed hidden, this is what I wanted to check.
Now, if you want to un-hide it, you can do :

Just do not do that on special files (symlinks, fifos, etc.)

** edit **

Attached is a patch for setting the "hidden" flag according to the latest name, when hide_dot_files is set :



Can you check whether this suits your needs ?

Regards

Jean-Pierre

I have a directory shared from my linux server to my home network using netatalk. There are lots of .DS_Store files and .AppleDouble directories all over the place. When I share this directory with RetroShare, it picks up all of these directories and files. Is there a way to make RetroShare ignore dot files when indexing a directory to share?

Thanks,
Tim

Hi,


Try using option "hide_hid_files"

Regards

Jean-Pierre