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RE: Virtual Dired directories
From: |
Drew Adams |
Subject: |
RE: Virtual Dired directories |
Date: |
Wed, 19 Nov 2008 14:11:50 -0800 |
> A nice feature in Dired, if it doesn't already exist,
You're in luck, it does!
> might be the ability to create virtual dired directories --
> something like symlinks, but just in Emacs. So instead of
> creating a real directory and cluttering up your file
> system, you just have this virtual directory where you can
> act on a list of files scattered around the system as if
> they were all in one place.
>
> For example, on a Windows machine at work I have
> emacsclientw.exe set as my desktop shell. I have a
> directory called ~/bin that has Windows ``shortcuts'' to all
> the binary files I need on a regular basis and have
> w32-integ-dired-explorer-open bound to C-c o in Dired. This
> is a nice simple replacement for the Windows start menu for
> me. But it might be easier if there were a way to simply
> create a Dired ``virtual directory'' for that, instead of
> having to create links to all those files and put them in a
> real directory.
>
> Anyway, a thought. I have only skimmed the Dired docs, so
> maybe it's already possible to do this, or maybe it doesn't
> fit well with how Dired does things. I dunno.
The first thing you can do is provide a wildcard (glob) expression to Dired: C-x
d /path/to/dir/foo*.* AFAIK, you cannot use such a virtual directory as a
bookmark (bookmark.el), however.
Emacs filesets provide more flexibility wrt filename patterns. See the Emacs
manual, node Filesets, but this page provides better help:
http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/FileSets
If you use Icicles, you have even more flexibility wrt the set of files and
filename patterns. You can use Emacs filesets or saved sets of filenames in a
mix of directories anywhere. You can open Dired (virtual directory) for any such
set. You can create such a saved set using the files that are marked in Dired
(from multiple Dired buffers) or in other ways. And you can use such a saved set
(or a fileset) as the set of completion candidates when you open, delete, etc.
files.
http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/Icicles_-_Persistent_Completions#toc5
http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/Icicles_-_Dired_Enhancements
http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/Icicles_-_Support_for_Projects