Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!yale!think!linus!mwunix.mitre.org!jcmorris
From: jcmorris@mwunix.mitre.org (Joe Morris)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Hidden subdirectories??
Message-ID: <110611@linus.mitre.org>
Date: 11 Jun 90 15:00:54 GMT
References: <6350.266e60ce@jetson.uh.edu> <2671ae04-3c3.1comp.sys.ibm.pc-1@oneb>
Sender: usenet@linus.mitre.org
Reply-To: jcmorris@mwunix.mitre.org (Joe Morris)
Organization: The Mitre Corporation
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In a recent article kmcvay@oneb (Ken McVay) writes:
>Is there any way to change the attribute on a directory or subdirectory
>so that it is hidden? I would like a subdirectory not to appear when
>someone is casually looking at the disk, but if you CD to the subdirectory
>then all the files will be visible. 

The most direct way is to use Norton Utilities to set the "hidden"
bit in the directory which contains the entry for the directory you
want to hide.  Do this and a DIR listing of the higher-level directory
won't show the entry, but an explicit DIR of the hidden directory will
work as usual.

Be aware, though, that several shell programs will have problems with
this structure because they want you to work your way down the tree
from the root directory.  If a directory is hidden they won't allow 
you to reach through it to the lower-level entries, although you can
sometimes finesse the problem by issuing a CD command directly.

I've seen at least one commercial CD-ROM which was sent out with some
(undocumented) GIF pictures in a hidden subdirectory.  I wonder how many
corporate buyers of that CD-ROM realize that they've purchased some 
graphic images which look like they came from Hustler or worse...