Hiding desktop folders using Command Line Interface Mac OS X

Question

Realizing that it is possible to change the prefs check-off box in Finder to hide the Hard Drive icon, how would you do this from the command line interface? I.e. what and/or where is the CLI command that emulates the check-off box?

Answer 1

For hiding the Hard Drive you can modify Finder's preferences using the defaults command.

Specifically you would want to run:

defaults write com.apple.finder ShowHardDrivesOnDesktop -bool NO

and relaunch the Finder (using killall Finder for example)

For hiding files in general from Finder you can either have . in front of the filename (eg. .hidden Folder), by turning on the invisible flag using SetFile, or using chflags.

/usr/bin/SetFile -a V /PATH/TO/FILE/OR/FOLDER

chflags hidden /PATH/TO/FILE/OR/FOLDER

To reverse:

SetFile -a v /PATH/TO/FILE/OR/FOLDER

chflags nohidden /PATH/TO/FILE/OR/FOLDER

SetFile is installed by default in Snow Leopard but previous versions required you to install the Developer Tools.

Answer 2

I think you're looking for SetFile's invisible attribute which can be used on files and folders:

SetFile -a V /path/to/folder

SetFile is not included by default in versions prior to Snow Leopard, but you can get it from the Apple developers kit.

Answer 3

Disclaimer : This is not the right answer yet, but hopefully someone can build upon it to make it work :-

defaults write ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist ShowHardDrivesOnDesktop -bool false && sudo killall Finder