By default we cannot see directories or files which start with a dot (.). These files and directories are considered hidden. We can change NetBeans so these files and directories are shown. We go to Tools | Options and press the Advanced Options button. A new dialog window is opened. We need to select Options | IDE Configuration | System | System Settings. The property Ignored Files contains a regular expression which states which files and directories are not shown in NetBeans. The default setting is: ^(CVS|SCCS|vssver.?\.scc|#.*#|%.*%|\.(cvsignore|svn|DS_Store)|_svn)$|~$|^\..*$. The last entry defines the files and directories which start with a dot. We remove ^\..*$ and now we can see the hidden files and directories.
