OS X version 10.9.2 - what are all these dot files?

[vr.]

I've been aware of the .DS_store nonsense for some time but today I finally had enough of the horrible file manager Apple calls "Finder" and I downloaded a trial of Xfile.

I start slogging through my directories of files and notice that for every 1 fileName of mine, there's a corresponding dot fileName.

Is this residual Finder trickery? Is this Xfile new behavior trickery?

What is up with this?

 

[Terpfen]

The dot files are where Finder stores your display preferences and thumbnail data. They're metadata files, basically.

 

[TekSomniaK]

I don't know about the other dot files but check out something like Asepsis from binaryage.com for dealing with .DS_Store files

 

[Spazturtle]

You see how every file has an icon or thumbnail?

That's stored in the .DS_store file.

When you rgiht click an file and show info all the data their such as file size is stored in the .DS_store file.

Delete the .DS_store file and next time you right click show info it will wait a sec whilst it builds a new .DS_store file.

 

[vr.]

except....... I'm not talking about the .DS_store files.

There is a .FILENAME for every one of my FILENAME(s).

 

[Terpfen]

The .filename files are metadata, as you've already been told. They contain file properties, help with Spotlght indexing and searching, etc.

 

[CEpeep]

Tell your file manager to hide them. Even an 'ls -la' in the terminal won't find those files. There's no point in having them be visible most of the time. It would be like showing all the NTFS metadata pointers by default in Windows Explorer.