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Justin's Digital Garden

Emacs Shortcuts for dired

Section titled “Dired and Search”
Description Shortcut
Fuzzy find file with fd, (Doom Emacs) +vertico/consult-fd-or-find
Find a file with pattern, case sensitive (like Linux) find-name-dired <pattern like *string*>
Find a file with pattern, case insensitive or other flags find-dired and set flags as needed
Grep in directory, by default does not include hidden consult-rg or counsel-rg
Grep in version controlled files in git consult-rg or counsel-git-grep

Search File Names and Replace

Section titled “Search File Names and Replace”
  • Use find-name-dired to search for files recursively in a directory
    • Use * as a wild card, the search is case sensitive
  • or use find-dired and use flag -iname to search case insensitive and/or other find flags
  • Use wdired-change-to-wdired-mode or C-c C-e to edit the results in dired and apply with C-c
  • Use browse-url-of-dired-file to open the file in the browser or default OS program like on Windows

Search and Replace all in Directory Files

Section titled “Search and Replace all in Directory Files”
  • Grep in directory and got to search results using projectile-ripgrep
    • e to edit results
    • m for rg-menu for ripgrep options like search hidden files with --hidden
    • query-replace or M-% to make changes
    • apply changes with C-x C-s to save or C-c C-k to abort
Description Shortcut
Grep in directory grep
Grep in directory, change search results grep and search, C-c C-p or wgrep-change-to-wgrep-mode
Grep in directory, change search results save or abort C-x C-s (save) or C-c C-k

Dired and Files Management

Section titled “Dired and Files Management”
Name Shortcuts
Open dired C-x d
Open dired in directory with point on current file C-x C-j
Rename current file (Emacs 29+) rename-visited-file
Find file and open or create file C-x C-f
Make Directory +

For renaming files under version control, dired will rename them in a friendly way, for example using git mv. This functionality is controlled by the variable dired-vc-rename-file being t (true).

Selection

Section titled “Selection”
Name Shortcuts
Mark file m
Unmark file u
Unmark all files U
Mark all files in directory * s
Invert marks in buffer * t, t
Mark using RegExp % m

File Names

Section titled “File Names”

from Emacs: store music playlists (Dired+Bongo) - YouTube |

Name Shortcuts
Copy path and file names of marked items C-0 w
Copy file name at point w

File Operations

Section titled “File Operations”
Name Shortcuts
Compress file c
Copy file S-c
Copy filename at point or marked C-0 w
Delete - delete file at point with confirmation S-d
Delete - Execute deletion of marks x
Delete - Mark for deletion d
Execute program on file (e.g. cat) ! or &
Move/rename file, respect VCS like git mv (move) S-r , dired-do-rename
Open, Edit file RET
Open file in other window o
Open file in other window without focusing on it M-o/RET
Open with External Program dired-do-open or S-w
Open with local browser browse-url-of-dired-file, S-w
Preview file g o and close with q
Rename based on RegExp % R
Wdired dired, make dired buffer editable C-c C-e

Changes and Permissions

Section titled “Changes and Permissions”
Name Shortcuts
Touch (change timestamp of file) T
Change file mode M
Change file owner O
Change file group G

Directories

Section titled “Directories”
Name Shortcuts
Go up one directory ^
Create directory +
Create symbolic link S

Other

Section titled “Other”
Name Shortcuts
Compress/uncompress Z
Load Emacs Lisp (.el) file into Emacs L
Show/hide/view permission, user, group, space details using dired-hide-details-mode (