Dired Marks vs. Flags

Instead of flagging a file with `D', you can mark the file with some other character (usually `*'). Most Dired commands to operate on files, aside from "expunge" (x), look for files marked with `*'.

Here are some commands for marking with `*' (and also for unmarking). (See section Deleting Files with Dired, for commands to flag and unflag files.)

m

Mark the current file with `*' (dired-mark). With a numeric argument n, mark the next n files starting with the current file. (If n is negative, mark the previous -n files.)

*

Mark all executable files with `*' (dired-mark-executables). With a numeric argument, unmark all those files.

@

Mark all symbolic links with `*' (dired-mark-symlinks). With a numeric argument, unmark all those files.

/

Mark with `*' all files which are actually directories, except for `.' and `..' (dired-mark-directories). With a numeric argument, unmark all those files.

M-DEL markchar

Remove all marks that use the character markchar (dired-unmark-all-files). If you specify RET as markchar, this command removes all marks, no matter what the marker character is. With a numeric argument, this command queries about each marked file, asking whether to remove its mark. You can answer y meaning yes, n meaning no, ! to remove the marks from the remaining files without asking about them.

c old new

Replace all marks that use the character old with marks that use the character new (dired-change-marks). This command is the primary way to create or use marks other than `*' or `D'. The arguments are single characters--do not use RET to terminate them. You can use almost any character as a mark character by means of this command, to distinguish various classes of files. If old is a space (` '), then the command operates on all unmarked files; if new is a space, then the command unmarks the files it acts on. To illustrate the power of this command, here is how to put `*' marks on all the files that are unmarked, while unmarking all those that have `*' marks:

c * t  c SPC *  c t SPC

% m regexp RET

Mark (with `*') all files whose names match the regular expression regexp (dired-mark-files-regexp). % m is like % d, except that it marks files with `*' instead of flagging with `D'. See section Flagging Many Files. Only the non-directory part of the file name is used in matching. Use `^' and `$' to anchor matches. Exclude subdirectories by hiding them (see section Hiding Subdirectories).