Topic summary
Dot file
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Hidden file and hidden directory.
Unix and Unix-like environments
The Unix-based lsshellcommand hides any file that starts with a dot (commonly called a dot file or dotfile) unless the option-a or -A is specified. Even with wildcard matching, the command does not match a dotfile unless the expression starts with . For example, *f* does not match .foo, but .f* does.