Show hidden files in Mac OS X Finder

By default, Mac OS X’s Finder keeps system files – which generally start with a dot, like .bash_profile – out of your sight. But that makes editing one of these files extremely difficult if you, say, want to customize your Terminal prompt.

Execute the following in Terminal (to undo the change set TRUE to FALSE).

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
killall Finder

References

Show hidden files in Finder