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 use the files marked with *, the exception being x which deletes the flagged files.
Here are some commands for marking with *, or for unmarking or operating on marks. (See Dired Deletion, for commands to flag and unflag files.)
- m
- * 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. - * s
Mark all the files in the current subdirectory, aside from . and .. (dired-mark-subdir-files). - u
- * u
Remove any mark on this line (dired-unmark). - <DEL>
- * <DEL>
Move point to previous line and remove any mark on that line (dired-unmark-backward). - * !
Remove all marks from all the files in this Dired buffer (dired-unmark-all-marks). - * ? markchar
Remove all marks that use the character markchar (dired-unmark-all-files). The argument is a single character--do not use <RET> to terminate it. See the description of the * c command below, which lets you replace one mark character with another.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, or ! to remove the marks from the remaining files without asking about them.
- * C-n
Move down to the next marked file (dired-next-marked-file) A file is "marked" if it has any kind of mark. - * C-p
Move up to the previous marked file (dired-prev-marked-file) - * t
Toggle all marks (dired-do-toggle): files marked with * become unmarked, and unmarked files are marked with *. Files marked in any other way are not affected. - * c old-markchar new-markchar
Replace all marks that use the character old-markchar with marks that use the character new-markchar (dired-change-marks). This command is the primary way to create or use marks other than * or D. The
