Easy Ways to Hide Files and Folders on Linux
If you share a computer that uses Linux with other people, such as with family members, friends at work or school and college, and on that device there are privacy files that are not allowed to be seen by others.
So that the file is not seen by others, of course you have to hide the file so that it is not visible. But the question is how to do it?
For users who are used to and have been using Linux for a long time, they may be used to doing it. You can use several applications or tools to hide and secure files on Linux, such as Plasma Vault and others.
However, there is another fairly easy and effective way that you can use to hide and secure files on Linux which we will learn about in this tutorial.
As mentioned above, the method is very easy and can be used by users who are still new to using Linux, this method can be used either through the Terminal with Command Line Interface (CLI) or with Graphical User Interface (GUI).
How to Hide Files and Folders on Linux
To hide files and folders in Linux via Terminal, it’s very easy, you just need to add a “.” (period) at the beginning of the name of the file or folder that you want to hide, which can be done with the “mv” command as follows:
mv sudoway.png .sudoway.png
Replace “sudoway.png” in the command with the name and extension of the file you want to hide. If what you want to hide is a folder, just enter the name of the folder.
On Graphical User Interface (GUI), the way to do it is exactly the same. You only need to change the name of the file or folder that you want to hide by adding a “.” (period) at the beginning of the name of the file or folder you want to hide.
Right-click on the name of the file or folder, then on the dropdown menu option, select Rename. You can also change it by pressing the “F2” key on the keyboard after selecting the desired file or folder.
After you change the name of the file or folder, the file or folder is still visible, exit the directory and then go back in, then the file or folder that you hid before will no longer be visible.
How to View Hidden Files or Folders in Linux
After successfully hiding the file or folder you want, the next question is how you can see the file or folder again when you want it.
To see hidden files, the way is quite easy. From Terminal, you just need to run the command “ls” followed by parameter “-a” and “-al” are used to view all files and folders in a directory.
ls -a ls -al
If you are using a GUI, you can do this by selecting the “View” tab on the menu bar from file manager, then from menu options dropdownselect “Show Hidden Files” to view hidden files and folders as shown below:
How to Lock a File or Folder Using a Password
With the above method, if other people know there are hidden files and want to see the files you hide, then the hidden files or folders can still be seen.
To overcome this, to add a little more security to your privacy files, you can do a trick like the following.
You can lock the file or folder by doing compress and then you can add a password to the file or folder so that it cannot be accessed.
Select the file or folder you want to add password by right-clicking on the file or folder, then selecting the “Compress” option in the list of options from the menu dropdown as follows:
Choose file format compress to “.zip” in order to add passwordthen at the bottom of the window, select “Other options”, then appears box to fill password what you want is like this:
Contents box it with password do you want. When you’re done, do it compress file or folder by pressing the “Create” button.
After that, whenever you want to open a file or folder that has been saved, compress that, you will need password to open it. So that anyone who doesn’t have password won’t be able to open it.
Then next to hide the file, just add a “.” (period) at the beginning of the filename that has been compress to hide it, as before.
This method is one of the easiest ways that you can do without the need to install any additional applications. You can use other methods that you think are more effective, such as using an application or other ways. Hope it is useful.
