How to hide or unhide files and folders in Linux

Hidden files and folders will not be shown by default by file managers such as GNOME Files or Dolphin, or command line tools such as ls. A file or folder is considered hidden if its name starts with a ..

Files and folders could be hidden by prepending a . to its name and could be unhidden by removing the leading . using mv command at the terminal.

Steps to hide and unhide files and folders in Linux:

1. Launch terminal
2. List files and folders in a folder using ls.

   $ ls temp/
   file  folder

3. Rename an existing file by prepending . to its name using mv to hide a file.

   $ mv temp/file temp/.file

4. Run ls to list files and folders in the previous folder.

   $ ls temp/
   folder

5. Rename the hidden file by removing the leading . using mv to unhide the file.

   $ mv temp/.file temp/file

6. Run ls again to list the files and folders in the folder.

   $ ls temp/
   file  folder