In OS X Lion, user libraries (~/Library) are hidden. If you want to make it visible, use chflags. To use chflags to hide a file, simply type chflags followed by hidden and then the folder. For example, let’s say you wanted to hide your ~/Library folder before you compiled a new copy of an operating system. Just run the following to hide it (or re-hide it once you provde you can unhide it):
chflags hidden ~/Library
And then let’s say you wanted to unhide it ’cause you realized that it’s one of those folders best left visible:
chflags nohidden ~/Library
You can also use the SetFile command (both are located in /usr/bin, although chflags is included by default whereas SetFile is installed with the OS X Developer Tools). SetFile has a -a option and can set the v or V attribute to make a file shown or hidden respectively. Run the following command to make this same folder invisible:
SetFile -a V ~/Library
Or the following to make it visible:
SetFile -a v ~/Library
Having said all this, if you’ve ever had a user trash their Library because “I didn’t put it there so I thought it should go away” then you might consider just leaving ~/Library as it was…
