442528 - Hidden items in directory listings on Windows are hidden regardless of "Show hidden objects" checkbox

Status: UNCONFIRMED

(Core :: Networking: File, defect, P5)

Description

[itsnotabigtruck]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.9) Gecko/2008052906 Firefox/3.0
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.9) Gecko/2008052906 Firefox/3.0

On Windows, items with the hidden attribute set and items with names starting with a dot are both hidden from view in directory listings. A "Show hidden objects" checkbox is provided to show or hide these hidden items. However, the checkbox only controls display of Unix-style hidden items; items with the Windows hidden attribute set are hidden regardless.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Make a directory somewhere.
2. Create a file named .hiddenfile (with the dot at the start).
3. Create another file named winhidden (no dot at the start).
4. Right-click winhidden, select Properties, and check the Hidden box. Click OK.
5. Navigate to the directory in Firefox.
6. Make sure the "Show hidden objects" checkbox is checked.
7. Now uncheck the checkbox.
Actual Results:  
When the checkbox is checked, .hiddenfile is visible, but winhidden isn't. When the checkbox is unchecked, neither file is visible.

Expected Results:  
winhidden should be visible when the checkbox is checked and not visible when the checkbox is unchecked. .hiddenfile could either be shown or hidden (note that Windows Explorer does not hide Unix-style hidden items).

You can also test this by navigating to your profile directory (file:///c:/users/YOURUSERNAME on Vista and file:///c:/documents and settings/YOURUSERNAME on XP). The Application Data (XP) or AppData (Vista) directories should be visible when "Show hidden objects" is checked.

Note that Windows Explorer won't let you create files with a dot as the first character; you'll need to use the command prompt for that.

Comment 1

[RodeMcGuire]

Confirmed for Windows 10, Firefox 48.0.2

The effect of the "Show hidden objects" checkbox in a Windows file:///... directory display has nothing to do with the "hidden" file/directory attribute in Windows.

1. Windows hidden files/directories within a directory are never displayed.
2. Unchecking the box will only suppress the display of files/directories that start with a period (.).

I recently came across a GIT gitk configuration file, file:///C:/Users/Rod/.config/git/gitk, that was that had the Windows hidden attribute and doesn't show in a directory display but can be linked to. I can think of no good reason for Windows-git to hide this but doing so sure caused me some confusion.

Comment 2

[Firefox Bug Husbandry Bot]

Bulk change to priority: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1399258