title: Can't find .m2 directory on a mac
body: <p>I'm deep on the weeds on this one. I've never used mac before (I'm using High Sierra on an airbook) and set up my Eclipse with a skeleton Cucumber BDD project and now I need maven to compile and run my tests. </p>
  
  <p>I'm getting this compilation </p>
  
  <pre><code>error: [ERROR] /Users/{username}/Downloads/cucumber-java-skeleton-master/src/test/java/shouty/RunCukesTest.java:[12,8] error while writing shouty.RunCukesTest: /Users/{username}/Downloads/cucumber-java-skeleton-master/target/test-classes/shouty/RunCukesTest.class (Permission denied)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>First, I tried setting the permissions to 755 for all folders in eclipse-workspace and my project folder</p>
  
  <p>I've been combing through SO all day and one suggestion was to delete the repo folder in my .m2 directory but I can't find it</p>
  
  <p>I used brew to install maven, so one suggestion was to create an .m2 directory myself, then copy settings.xml in .m2 directory.</p>
  
  <p><code>sudo mkdir ~/.m2</code> seems to work fine and if I try to run the command again, I get <code>mkdir: /Users/&lt;my name&gt;/.m2: File exists</code></p>
  
  <p>But when I <code>ls -a</code> in that folder, I don't see it.
  So then I look in finder and I STILL can't find it</p>
  
  <p>And If I do a <code>find</code>, I get find: <code>.m2: No such file or directory</code></p>
  
  <p>Honestly, I'm not even sure deleting the repo folder will fix the permission issue, I'm just out of weekend to try to figure this out. </p>
  
  <p>I have multiple other errors coming from eclipse in both my runner file and pop ups and all are pointing to not being able to create classes due to permission errors, but SO answers point back to m2 directory so trying there first (and because I can't think of anywhere left to open permissions on)</p>