Problem finding my folder via terminal

[Cameron Simpson]

On 09Jun2018 02:37, Gene Heskett <gheskett at shentel.net> wrote:
>On Saturday 09 June 2018 01:36:17 Tamara Berger wrote:
>> Re inline style: When I hit reply, this is the window I get.

The python-list server strips attachments, so I didn't get the screenshot you 
may have attached. However...

>> I don't
>> get my previous email with the carets appended to the beginning of the
>> line.

I've just gone to my GMail and tried a reply. In my reply compose window there 
is a little button at the bottom left with three dots in it, thus: "[...]", 
kind of. Click that, it expands to the prior quoted text. Then you can trim it 
and insert your responses.

>> Before I look at the rest of your email, I'd like for you to explain
>> how there is a mymodule folder nested within another mymodule folder.
>> I don't see this second folder in Finder, and I definitely didn't
>> create it.
>
>Finder, if thats what you are using, I am not familiar with it, is
>probably showing you that which it has cached, before that folder was
>created.  Back out one layer and go back in so it actually reads a fresh
>copy of that directory(folder).

The Finder uses MacOS' equivalent of Linux' inotify: its folder views are 
"live" and update as soon as anything changes.

Tamara, there are things the Finder won't show, particularly "hidden" files, 
which is an attribute you can assign to folders. Maybe that is what happened.  
I've got no concrete explaination, and I can't inspect your machine directly.  
Also, how sure are you that the "mymodules" in the Finder is the upper one and 
not the lower one? Just guessing here.

My opinion is that you did create it, but not realised how that happened.

All you'd need to do is something like this:

  cd Desktop
  mkdir mymodules
  cd mymodules
  ... get distracted, do something else, come back much later ...
  mkdir mymodules
  cd mymodules
  ... proceed to make the setup.py and so forth ...

i.e. just do it twice. Alternatively, and this is a common one, you got a 
template archive, such as a zip file, containing an "empty" module to get you 
started. And did something like this:

  cd Desktop
  mkdir mymodules
  cd mymodules
  unzip the-empty-module-template.zip

If the zip file itself also contained a top level "mymodules" folder in it, it 
will have made the second "mymodules" inside the one you made.

Most archive files are set up to have their entire contents inside a single top 
folder, so this scenario isn't all that unlikely.

A third possibility is that you made a mymodules somewhere else (such as in 
your top level home directory), and later decided to put it on your Desktop to 
make it easy to find/access. So you might have decided to "mv" your "mymodules" 
folder into the Desktop like this:

  mv mymodules Desktop/mymodules

which is fine. But mv has some interesting behaviour. If "mymodules" didn't 
exist in Desktop, then youre "mymodules" will get moved into the Desktop.  
However, if mv's final argument is an _existing_ directory, mv puts things 
inside it. So if you went:

  mkdir Desktop/mymodules
  mv mymodules Desktop/mymodules

then mv would put your top level "mymodules" _inside_ the "Desktop/mymodules" 
folder that already exists, producing the structure you currently have.

Cheers,
Cameron Simpson <cs at cskk.id.au>