I remember reading where it is bad security practice to edit files directly on the server because it may create hidden temporary files. Is it possible to search for these files? I was thinking of find / -name .*, but that returns "paths must precede expression: .." and do not know if that will include all files possibly created by elvis or nano.
Put the name in quotes:
find / -name '.*'otherwise the shell interprets it and runs something like:
find / -name . ..