diff --git a/cmd/kubelet/app/options/options.go b/cmd/kubelet/app/options/options.go
index 40666befe21..ae2ce3a81fa 100644
--- a/cmd/kubelet/app/options/options.go
+++ b/cmd/kubelet/app/options/options.go
@@ -91,7 +91,7 @@ func (s *KubeletServer) AddFlags(fs *pflag.FlagSet) {
 	fs.StringSliceVar(&s.APIServerList, "api-servers", []string{}, "List of Kubernetes API servers for publishing events, and reading pods and services. (ip:port), comma separated.")
 	fs.MarkDeprecated("api-servers", "Use --kubeconfig instead. Will be removed in a future version.")
 
-	fs.StringVar(&s.PodManifestPath, "pod-manifest-path", s.PodManifestPath, "Path to to the directory containing pod manifest files to run, or the path to a single pod manifest file.")
+	fs.StringVar(&s.PodManifestPath, "pod-manifest-path", s.PodManifestPath, "Path to to the directory containing pod manifest files to run, or the path to a single pod manifest file. Files starting with dots will be ignored.")
 	fs.DurationVar(&s.SyncFrequency.Duration, "sync-frequency", s.SyncFrequency.Duration, "Max period between synchronizing running containers and config")
 	fs.DurationVar(&s.FileCheckFrequency.Duration, "file-check-frequency", s.FileCheckFrequency.Duration, "Duration between checking config files for new data")
 	fs.DurationVar(&s.HTTPCheckFrequency.Duration, "http-check-frequency", s.HTTPCheckFrequency.Duration, "Duration between checking http for new data")
diff --git a/pkg/kubelet/config/file_linux.go b/pkg/kubelet/config/file_linux.go
index b13de49cce9..06216279183 100644
--- a/pkg/kubelet/config/file_linux.go
+++ b/pkg/kubelet/config/file_linux.go
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ package config
 import (
 	"fmt"
 	"os"
+	"strings"
 
 	"github.com/golang/glog"
 	"golang.org/x/exp/inotify"
@@ -79,6 +80,11 @@ func (s *sourceFile) watch() error {
 }
 
 func (s *sourceFile) processEvent(e *inotify.Event) error {
+	// Ignore file start with dots
+	if strings.HasPrefix(e.Name, ".") {
+		glog.V(4).Infof("Ignored pod manifest: %s, because it starts with dots", e.Name)
+		return nil
+	}
 	var eventType podEventType
 	switch {
 	case (e.Mask & inotify.IN_ISDIR) > 0: