• On Unix-like operating systems, a file or directory that starts with a dot character (for example, .profile or .git). It is treated as hidden, that is, the ls command does not display them unless the -a flag is used (ls -a). In most command-line shells, wildcards will not match files whose names start with “.” unless the wildcard itself starts with an explicit “.”. A convention arose of using dotfiles in the user’s home directory to store per-user configuration or informational text. ← Wikipedia

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