Hidden Files

You'll see .DS_Store files everywhere. These are Finder metadata files that store:

• Icon positions
• View settings (list, icon, column)
• Folder-specific display preferences

They're harmless but annoying in git repos. Add to your global .gitignore:

echo ".DS_Store" >> ~/.gitignore_global
git config --global core.excludesfile ~/.gitignore_global

Hidden Files

macOS hides files starting with . (dotfiles) by default.

Toggle Hidden Files in Finder

Press Cmd + Shift + . (period): toggles visibility on and off.

Common Hidden Files

File	Purpose
.zshrc	Shell configuration (like .bashrc)
.gitignore	Git ignore rules
.ssh/	SSH keys
.config/	App configs (XDG standard)
.Trash/	Your Trash folder

Permissions

macOS uses Unix permissions (same as Linux). The basics:

ls -la ~/Documents/
# drwxr-xr-x  5 yourname  staff  160 Mar 30 10:00 projects
# -rw-r--r--  1 yourname  staff  4096 Mar 30 09:00 notes.txt

Symbol	Meaning
d	Directory
r	Read
w	Write
x	Execute (or enter, for directories)

Fixing Permission Issues

# Make a script executable
chmod +x script.sh

# Take ownership of a folder
sudo chown -R $(whoami) /path/to/folder