How to recursively list only hidden files from a terminal

Question

I would like to do something like

ls -RA .?* >> LSRA.list

but with this command and some other variants I tried, I always get also all non-hidden files in the directory where I am.

Namely, if the directory contains files

.hiddenfile foo

with above command I get ther recursive list of both, while I would like to ave only the recursive list of files and directory starting with . (but not the . directory itself!)

I checked answers to this question but I did't find the solution to my problem.

Update: best options found so far:

 ls -RA .!(|.)*

and

 find -path './.*' -name '.*' -empty -printf %P\\n

the latter recursively list all hidden files in all hidden directory (so if am hidden directory contains a non-hidden files, it does not show that file).

Further update. both answers of bac0n and vanadium work: I cannot accept both! (first one recursively shows nonhidden files in hidden directory, latter one recursively shows only hidden files)

vanadium · Accepted Answer · 2021-02-27T16:23:35.740

10

To recursively list only hidden files from a terminal, you can use the tool find with the -type f option:

find ~ -type f -name '.*'

This will find all files in the user's home directory for which the basename starts with a dot, i.e., a hidden file or folder. Remove -type f to list both hidden files and folders, or specify type d to list only hidden directories. Specify any other directory by replacing ~ with a valid pathname. Specify . to list hidden files in the current working directory and below.

edited Feb 27 '21 at 16:23

answered Feb 27 '21 at 13:22

vanadium

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For me it does not, and it is not supposed to do so. "find" will match the glob for the *basename* only. It is straightforward use of `find`. Can you indicate which OS version you use? For me, the option `-A` for `ls` you mention does not work. Perhaps working under a different shell? – vanadium Feb 27 '21 at 13:45
Difficult to see from here what exactly might be going on on your system. – vanadium Feb 27 '21 at 13:49
Perhaps also try `'\.*`. This "escapes" the dot, and prevents it from being interpreted as a wildcard for one character. Not needed for me, but I added it to the question nevertheless. – vanadium Feb 27 '21 at 13:52
Forget about my comment on the `-A` option: I forgot I have `exa` installed, an alternative `ls` command that does not support the option. – vanadium Feb 27 '21 at 14:03
My mistake: the files that seemed "nonhidden" where just file with a long path and the "dot" was at the breakline! :( sorry. But now I created a test directory and seems to work... too much! that is to say, do not show nonhydden files in hidden directories – user126154 Feb 27 '21 at 14:08
Please note your question was explicitly to "list only hidden files": see your title. In the body of your question, you indicate: " I would like to ave only the recursive list of files and directory starting with . (but not the . directory itself!)". That is what this answer does. Also, please update your question for the comment on my answer. – vanadium Feb 27 '21 at 14:13
update the question and deleted erroneous comments. Sorry about that, and thanks a lot for your help – user126154 Feb 27 '21 at 14:15

score 3 · Answer 2 · 2021-02-27T14:41:56.163

3

It may be hard to match every corner-case:

find \( -path './.*' -type d -empty -printf %P/\\n \) -o -type f -path './.*' -printf %P\\n

edited Feb 27 '21 at 14:41

answered Feb 27 '21 at 13:51

That seems to work! – user126154 Feb 27 '21 at 14:03
puh... will make some description ... later... – Feb 27 '21 at 14:04
I accepted the other question because it is more coherent with the title of the question, so for other users it may be better like that. But I was in fact interested in your answer! Thank you! – user126154 Feb 27 '21 at 14:17

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 10 '21 at 15:56

Here's a function that handles no command arguments, doesn't throw errors on directories without hidden files, appends / on listed directories, and outputs to a single column.


lsa () {

    # Exit codes with/without argument are 0 if no hidden files present
    EXIT=$(ls -1d .!(|.) |& grep -q "No such file"; echo $?)
    EXIT_ARG=$(cd $1; ls -1d .!(|.) |& grep -q "No such file"; echo $?)

    # If no argument
    if [ $# -eq 0 ]; then
        if [ $EXIT -eq 0 ]; then
            printf ""
        else
            ls -1dp .!(|.)
        fi
    
    # If argument
    else
        if [ $EXIT_ARG -eq 0 ]; then
            printf ""
        else
            (cd $1; ls -1dp .!(|.))
        fi
    fi
}

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 16 '21 at 06:25

Kindly run below commands to list only hidden items from any location(location can change on below commands) recursively and suppress error in order to show only expected result.

#to list every type of file/folder/data/objects... which are hidden in linux

sudo find / -iname '.*' 2> /dev/null|nl

#to list only hidden files recursively in linux

sudo find / -type f -iname '.*' 2> /dev/null|nl

#to list only hidden directories recursively in linux

sudo find / -type d -iname '.*' 2> /dev/null|nl

How to recursively list only hidden files from a terminal

4 Answers4