Q:

How can I exclude . and .. when listing only hidden items?

ls -d .* lists only hidden "items" (files & directories). (I think) technically it lists every item beginning with ., which includes the current . and above .. directories.
I also know that ls -A lists "almost all" of the items, listing both hidden and un-hidden items, but excluding . and ... However, combining these as ls -dA .* doesn't list "almost all" of my hidden items.
How can I exclude . and .. when listing only hidden items?

A:

This has been answered over at Ask Ubuntu, which I will reproduce here:
ls -d .!(|.) with Bash's extended globs (shopt -s extglob to enable)
ls -d .[!.]* ..?* if not

