How to show dot underscore ._ files?

I want the OSX to show all kind of hidden files including ._ files too. I do not know exactly what I did, but I am successful in seeing .DS_STORE files, but not ._ files. Any idea how to achieve that?

Solution 1:

Open up terminal, and write:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES

This makes you see dot files and hidden files in a grayish tint. You open . files with right click open. I do not know why you cannot just double click them though. If it is a problem, ask a separate question on that.

Just a little bonus: You can hide files by issuing:

chflags hidden /path/to/file

and unhide by issuing:

chflags nohidden /path/to/file

Solution 2:

The issue is that zip files just contain one string per path whilst OS X paths point to a file and also metadata and resource forks. When HFS+ directories are zipped OS X tools will put this metadata and other info into ._ files in the zip if copying to another file system. See this Ask Different question

I think (but have not found a reference) that when an OS X aware tool unzips an archive with ._ files in it will reapply them as metadata or resource forks i.e. the opposite action to the one that created the ._ files