Half the time when I download a .sit file, all the files in the unpacked directory are invisible to the finder (though they show up with "ls".) They're not dot files. Neither "/Developer/Tools/SetFile -a v dir/*" nor "/Developer/Tools/SetFile -a V dir/*" makes them show up in the finder.
Making a new directory and "cp -pr" makes them show up. Uh, I think? Usually? But is there some easier way than that?
Update: StuffIt is confusing Finder. Restarting Finder after un-stuffing makes the files show up. Stupid StuffIt.
Update 2: Creating a new sub-folder of the folder with the invisible files also seems to un-confuse Finder. Stupid StuffIt.
I use
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
and everything shows up in the finder (I think).
Seems like using a sledgehammer to drive in a thumbtack... =)
is there a file named ".hidden" in the directory? MacOS has magic files like that that the finder uses to not show things (like all the unixy stuff in /)
No, there are no dot files at all.
And in fact there is no /.hidden either. I believe your info is several OS revisions out of date.
Could be. I stay away from the macs these days.
For the lazy there is Tinker Tool.
Does restarting the Finder make the files show up? (killall Finder, or control-click the dock icon and hit "relaunch")
Also, are the two commands you listed there supposed to be the same?
No, one was supposed to be "v" and one "V" since I didn't know which was which.
Yes, restarting finder makes the files show up! Something about StuffIt is confusing Finder. Stupid StuffIt. Why does anyone still use that garbage in this modern world? (It's 9.0.1 877, which I guess came with the OS.)
Just a guess, but are you opening the folder before the untar finishes? I've noticed that if a folder is opened when something is still unpacking into it then sometimes the finder doesn't get around to updating the view for a while. I have yet to find a way to force a refresh either.
No.
It's a known problem, but I can't remember if it's stuffit's fault or finder's. I just command+shift+n to create a new folder in the directory and then command+backspace to send the new folder to the trash.
A bit of a kludge but it works. I honestly don't understand why people still insist on using stuffit anyway when zip is built right into the OS. It's almost as bad as everyone using tar.gz, which is incredibly annoying as far as compressed files go.
i dunno what OS you're using, but *-nix, you need to set in your shell what permissions to give files you create...
Looking back over this thread, this reply certainly qualifies for most unintentionally hilarious post of the month.
Do you have "Show item info" selected (under the View menu in Finder)? A long time ago I had the same symptoms, and it turned out to be some lame interaction (or lack thereof) between Finder (when this option is set) and using StuffIt Expander (instead of the builtin support). Since turning off that option, I've never had to restart Finder just to find something that StuffIt creates.
Annoying Stuffit bug. I haven't noticed it since I updated to Stuffit version 10, though. I remember updating being annoying. Why are there so many archive formats?
Possibly unrelated, depending on your OSX version. If you use 10.3, read on, if you're on 10.4, never mind, this isn't it.
Before Osx 10.4, there was no way for a program to get notified if new files were created. And it takes finder +- forever to realize something has changed (it needs to poll, and doesn't do a very good job).
With 10.4, they finally build more or less decent notifications into the kernel, which will now notify finder (and anything else that wants to listen) if something changes in the filesystem, and finder should be able show the changes almost immediately.
But I'm stuck on 10.3.9 :-(