command to copy hidden files?

[James Wilkinson]

Dave Stevens wrote:
> I've tried to copy files from my home folder to do a disk upgrade. I
> foolishly only copied the visible (non-dot) files. Now I'd like to copy
> only the . files (recursively) but don't see what the syntax is. Anyone?

Back in 2004, Ulrich Drepper (the maintainer of glibc) wrote on this
list:
> The most straight-forward way is to tell the shell you want the dot
> files:
>
> $ ls -a
> ./  ../  .uu
> $ echo *
> *
> $ shopt -s dotglob
> $ echo *
> .uu
> $ shopt -u dotglob
> $ echo *
> *

In other words, use shopt -s dotglob and leading dots stop being
special.

Hope this helps,

James.

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