Bash asterisk omits files that start with '.'? [duplicate]

Question

I'm using a bash script to iterate over all files in a directory. But the loop is skipping over files that begin with a '.' such as '.bashrc' I'm not sure if .bashrc is failing the file test or is being omitted from the wildcard '*'. I've tried double quotes around "$item" but same result. How can I make this loop include .bashrc files?

id=0     
cd $USERDIR
for item in *
do
    if [[ -f $item ]]; then
        cdir[$id]=$item
        id=$(($id+1))
        echo $item
    fi
done  

Answer 1

It's not the loop omitting those files, it's the expansion of * by the shell. If you want the dotfiles as well, use:

for item in .* *

From the bash manpage:

When a pattern is used for pathname expansion, the character "." at the start of a name or immediately following a slash must be matched explicitly, unless the shell option dotglob is set.

That last sentence on the dotglob option may seem to be useful but you should be wary of changing options that may affect later code. The safest way to use them is to ensure you set them back to their original values, something like:

rest_cmd=$(shopt -p dotglob)  # Get restoration command
shopt -s dotglob              # Set option
for item in * ; do
    blah blah blah
done
${rest_cmd}                   # Restore option

But, in this case, I'd just stick with the explicit use of .* * since that's an easy solution.

Answer 2

You can set dotglob

shopt -s dotglob
for item in *; do echo "$item"; done