Unhiding ~/Library by default

[Chris]

Is there a way to show ~/Library by default on Lion machines?
In the User Templates it is unhidden,
so the hidden flag must be set when a user account is created.

I know that i can change it on a per-user basis,
i'd like to change it system-wide though if possible,
so when a user logs in for the first time his ~/Library folder is already unhidden.

Currently the only way i see to accomplish this is a separate policy running the chflags command on login once per user.

Any other ideas?

[rtrouton · Accepted solution]

I've got a LaunchAgent/script combo that fixes this issue:

https://github.com/rtrouton/rtrouton_scripts/tree/master/rtrouton_scripts/lion_show_user_library

[Chris]

Nice one, thanks!

[tlarkin]

The OS by default in 10.7 sets a flag to hide ~/Library, shown here:

bash-3.2$ pwd
/Users/tlarkin
bash-3.2$ ls -alO
total 24
drwxr-xr-x+ 14 tlarkin  staff  -           476 Feb 20 14:30 .
drwxr-xr-x   5 root     admin  -           170 Feb 20 08:57 ..
-rw-------   1 tlarkin  staff  compressed    3 Feb 20 08:57 .CFUserTextEncoding
-rw-r--r--@  1 tlarkin  staff  -          6148 Feb 20 14:30 .DS_Store
drwx------   2 tlarkin  staff  -            68 Feb 20 09:44 .Trash
-rw-------   1 tlarkin  staff  -            12 Feb 20 14:12 .bash_history
drwx------+  3 tlarkin  staff  -           102 Feb 20 08:57 Desktop
drwx------+  6 tlarkin  staff  -           204 Feb 20 14:30 Documents
drwx------+  5 tlarkin  staff  -           170 Feb 20 11:11 Downloads
drwx------@ 34 tlarkin  staff  hidden     1156 Feb 20 14:41 Library
drwx------+  3 tlarkin  staff  -           102 Feb 20 08:57 Movies
drwx------+  3 tlarkin  staff  -           102 Feb 20 08:57 Music
drwx------+  4 tlarkin  staff  -           136 Feb 20 08:57 Pictures
drwxr-xr-x+  5 tlarkin  staff  -           170 Feb 20 08:57 Public

So, just using chflags you can change it, with a one liner.

chflags nohidden ~/Library

[wiltzie75]

Hi,
Does this work with Network Accounts via Open Directory? I tried putting this in the main Library folder and could not get it to work. Is there a way to make it a policy?

Thanks,

Eric

[Kevin]

OK, I can't seem to accomplish this via script… This command has to be runs as the current logged in user, correct?

I perused the old mail list entries about running a command as the current user. I tried these:

#!/bin/sh
current_user=defaults read /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow.plist lastUserName
sudo -u "$current_user" chflags nohidden ~/Library/

#!/bin/bash user=ls -l /dev/console | cut -d " " -f 4
/usr/bin/su $user chflags nohidden ~/Library/

#!/bin/bash CurrentUser=/bin/ls -l /dev/console | usr/bin/awk '{ print $3 }' # now execute unit commands as that user /usr/bin/su $CurrentUser chflags nohidden ~/Library/
exit 0

None worked via Casper Remote.

What am I doing wrong?

[Matt]

Why not just run the following as a Login Script running once per user. You would need to put a policy flush in your imaging routine but I think that should be done anyways.

#!/bin/bash 
chflags nohidden ~/Library

[Kevin]

Matt, this command has to be run as the current logged in user.

[Matt]

Run a script that touches the User Template folder.