GVM uses hidden directory

Question

I am mac / Grails noob. I used the GVM to install Groovy and Grails on a Mac. When I do:

admins-MacBook-Pro-5:~ me$ which grails
/Users/me/.gvm/grails/current/bin/grails

I am just wondering why does gvm use a hidden directory and can this cause me any problems?

Thanks.

Answer 1

It's normal, it's a standard practice, and doesn't make any problem.

Configuration files that reside in users' home directories are hidden by default as a means of protecting them from accidental damage or deletion.

From: http://web.archive.org/web/20071017224738/http://bellevuelinux.org/hidden_file.html

Most other development tools use hidden directories too:

> ls -a ~/
.gradle .grails .gvm .ivy2 .lein .m2 .rvm