I usually use terminal to do my various searches of the filesystem, and wondered if I could just as easily do them using HoudahSpot, but quickly learned that I couldn’t. So it was suggested that I give EasyFind a try, and since it’s a DEVONtechnoliges product, I was all over it.
The last “find” that I ran was:
find ~ -type f \( -iname ".*" ! -iname ".DS_Store" ! -iname ".Bridge*" ! -iname ".Synology*" ! -iname "*.plist" \) -print
I’m now wondering if the above search can be done in EasyFind. That is, trying to locate any file in the filesystem that begins with a period (.) that is not named “.DS_Store” or “.Bridge*” or “.Synology” or “.plist”
Being that I’m extremely new to EasyFind, having just downloaded it, I’m not sure what type of operator to use. I’m guessing that I want “wildcards”, as that’s the only time that I get any relevant hits on .*, but it fails when I use .* !".DS_Store
Using RegEx works for ^\., finding anything that because with a period, but there’s no NOT in RegEx, thus making it very difficult to exclude the thing that I don’t want.
Why are you trying to locate any hidden file in the filesystem?
Because I used to hide things there, that I didn’t want found. Encrypted DMGs, that I’d renamed with a period in front of it. (I spent most of my career doing computer forensics, so I know how and where to hide things that I don’t want easily found.) 
so I know how and where to hide things that I don’t want easily found.
You’re so good at hiding things, even YOU can’t find them! 
In EasyFind, enable Include: Invisible Files & Folders.
Set the Operator to Regular Expressions and enter this seach term: ^\.(?!([DSB]|.*plist))
^ : anchor at beginning of string\. : escape dot to look for a literal period.(?!… : use a negative lookahead( : segregate the two conditions in internal parentheses[DSB] : ignore anything starting with D, S, or B (case-insensitive here)| : OR.+plist : match one or more occurrences of any character)) close the internal parentheses and the lookahead
Here are the hidden files on my desktop…
And here is what is matched after ignoring the specified ones…
I long ago stopped hiding things that way, but was looking for something and couldn’t find it. I was hoping that I had it in a hidden archive, but I didn’t. I had to restore it from backup. 
Thanks for the RegEx. I’ve forgotten TONS over the years, as my Unix SysAdmin days are at 30 years behind me!
You’re welcome. Glad to be able to help.
Much appreciated! Shouldn’t you be asleep!? 
Right! I’m sitting here retouching images for a client. I’ll sleep when I’m dead … or in a few hours. Which ever comes first. 
I’ll sleep when I’m dead …
Hahaha! I am well known for using this saying.
