By default, in Finder, any files that begin with a period (.
) are hidden. For
example, a file named .gitignore
would not appear in Finder. There is a
terminal command that allows you to show/hide these files in Finder. You might
have to quit and relaunch Finder by holding alt and right-clicking on its app
icon to make these take effect.
$ defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES
$ defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles NO
To create shortcuts for these commands, check out this article: http://ianlunn.co.uk/articles/quickly-showhide-hidden-files-mac-os-x-mavericks/