Show all files in OS X’s finder

By default the finder in OS X does not show all the files. You can still see the files if you use a terminal and type

ls -la

but sometimes you may need the finder to point to a particularly file. e.g. you want to load a hidden file in to an application. To force finder to show all files, just type the following into a terminal:

defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles YES

and the following to deactivate it:

defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles NO

You need to restart the finder, after you set the config option. To do so just press “ctrl-alt” while clicking on the finder icon in your dock, then choose “Relaunch”.