Delete marked files from dired

Delete marked files from dired

[notbob]

I've gotta lotta files to delete before rsyncing to a thumb drive.  I
know how to mark all files in a dir (* s) when in dired mode, but do not know how to
delete all those marked files.  Anybody?  ;)

nb

Re: Delete marked files from dired

[John Mastro]

notbob <notbob@nothome.com> wrote:
> I've gotta lotta files to delete before rsyncing to a thumb drive.  I
> know how to mark all files in a dir (* s) when in dired mode, but do not know how to
> delete all those marked files.  Anybody?  ;)

Press D, for `dired-do-delete'

        John

Re: Delete marked files from dired

[Emanuel Berg]

notbob wrote:

> I've gotta lotta files to delete before
> rsyncing to a thumb drive. I know how to mark
> all files in a dir (* s) when in dired mode,
> but do not know how to delete all those
> marked files. Anybody? ;)

D for `dired-do-delete', right?

-- 
underground experts united
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Re: Delete marked files from dired

[Harry Putnam]

notbob <notbob@nothome.com> writes:

> I've gotta lotta files to delete before rsyncing to a thumb drive.  I
> know how to mark all files in a dir (* s) when in dired mode, but do not know how to
> delete all those marked files.  Anybody?  ;)

Not sure how you are marking them, ... but if you use the d key and
them the x key you should get prompted if you want to delete the file.

Re: Delete marked files from dired

[Harry Putnam]

Harry Putnam <reader@newsguy.com> writes:

> notbob <notbob@nothome.com> writes:
>
>> I've gotta lotta files to delete before rsyncing to a thumb drive.  I
>> know how to mark all files in a dir (* s) when in dired mode, but do not know how to
>> delete all those marked files.  Anybody?  ;)
>
> Not sure how you are marking them, ... but if you use the d key and
> them the x key you should get prompted if you want to delete the file.

Sorry didn't see the other posts before posting above msg

Re: Delete marked files from dired

[Emanuel Berg]

Harry Putnam wrote:

>> I've gotta lotta files to delete before
>> rsyncing to a thumb drive. I know how to
>> mark all files in a dir (* s) when in dired
>> mode, but do not know how to delete all
>> those marked files. Anybody? ;)
>
> Not sure how you are marking them, ... but if
> you use the d key and them the x key you
> should get prompted if you want to delete
> the file.

He is marking them with keys * s which is
`dired-mark-subdir-files'. x, or
`dired-do-flagged-delete' doesn't work then (it
does for d, `dired-flag-file-deletion', as you
mention) but perhaps the OP was unaware of that
method as well so why not.

-- 
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Re: Delete marked files from dired

[Emanuel Berg]

notbob wrote:

> I've gotta lotta files to delete before
> rsyncing to a thumb drive. I know how to mark
> all files in a dir (* s) when in dired mode,
> but do not know how to delete all those
> marked files. Anybody? ;)

By the way, you can find answer to questions
such as this one with Emacs' `apropos' command.
Do

    M-x apropos RET dired delete RET

and see what you find. For this particular
question `apropos-command' is even better
because what you want to do is do something.

-- 
underground experts united
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573

Re: Delete marked files from dired

[Yuri Khan]

On Fri, Jun 2, 2017 at 7:29 AM, Emanuel Berg <moasen@zoho.com> wrote:

> He is marking them with keys * s which is
> `dired-mark-subdir-files'. x, or
> `dired-do-flagged-delete' doesn't work then (it
> does for d, `dired-flag-file-deletion', as you
> mention) but perhaps the OP was unaware of that
> method as well so why not.

Does somebody remember the story of different marks?

I mean, Dired has D for flagging for deletion, * for marking for most
other operations, and a command to change one mark to another. Ibuffer
has D for killing and > for other operations.

Most other file managers have just one kind of mark and it works the
same way for copying, moving, and deleting.

I wonder how and why that feature evolved?

Re: Delete marked files from dired

[Marcin Borkowski]

On 2017-06-02, at 00:10, notbob <notbob@nothome.com> wrote:

> I've gotta lotta files to delete before rsyncing to a thumb drive.  I
> know how to mark all files in a dir (* s) when in dired mode, but do not know how to
> delete all those marked files.  Anybody?  ;)

I didn't know about dired-do-delete, but here's another way (more
complicated, but potentially useful for other things).  You probably
know that you can mark files with `D' (for delete) or `*' (for other
things).  You might not know that you can have other marks
(one-character only, I presume), and change them with
`dired-change-marks' (`* c').  So, after marking with `m' (which uses
`*' as the mark), you can type

* c * D x

Hth,

--
Marcin Borkowski

Re: Delete marked files from dired

[Marco Wahl]

notbob <notbob@nothome.com> writes:

> I've gotta lotta files to delete before rsyncing to a thumb drive.  I
> know how to mark all files in a dir (* s) when in dired mode, but do not know how to
> delete all those marked files.  Anybody?  ;)

*c*Dx

This is change the * marks to D marks (D for deletion).  Then execute
(x).


Ciao

RE: Delete marked files from dired

[Drew Adams]

> Does somebody remember the story of different marks?
> 
> I mean, Dired has D for flagging for deletion, * for marking for most
> other operations, and a command to change one mark to another. Ibuffer
> has D for killing and > for other operations.
> 
> Most other file managers have just one kind of mark and
> it works the same way for copying, moving, and deleting.
> 
> I wonder how and why that feature evolved?

It is a very useful feature.  You can easily have any
number of different marks, representing _different sets_
of files, and then act on any given set in various ways.

Dired keys that act on marked files typically act on the
files marked `*'.  (Those marked `D' are usually called
"flagged", not just "marked", and only one key, `D', acts
directly on them.)

Changing files marked with `*' to another mark keeps
them marked (keeps that set defined) but removes them
from being acted on (by commands that act on `*'-marked
files, which is the typical case).

Changing another mark back to `*' lets you then act
on its files.  If there are already some other files
marked `*' when you do that then you have effectively
joined those two sets (union).

You get the idea.  It's really pretty simple and quite
visible - you can see the various labeled sets.

It's a bit like using tags in Bookmark+, but only one
mark at a time applies to a given file.

Re: Delete marked files from dired

[notbob]

On 2017-06-02, Marco Wahl <marcowahlsoft@gmail.com> wrote:

> *c*Dx
>
> This is change the * marks to D marks (D for deletion).  Then execute
> (x).

Works like a champ!  Thank you, so much, Marco.  ;)

nb

Re: Delete marked files from dired

[Thien-Thi Nguyen]

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() Yuri Khan <yuri.v.khan@gmail.com>
() Fri, 2 Jun 2017 11:55:15 +0700

   I wonder how and why that feature evolved?

IIRC (corrections welcome) way beck when, there was only the ‘d’
(key) producing ‘D’ in the left margin.  The other keys, letters
and symbols were a generalization that avoided subsuming ‘d’/‘D’
because such force is uncouth to long-time users' muscle-memory.

-- 
Thien-Thi Nguyen -----------------------------------------------
 (defun responsep (query)
   (pcase (context query)
     (`(technical ,ml) (correctp ml))
     ...))                              748E A0E8 1CB8 A748 9BFA
--------------------------------------- 6CE4 6703 2224 4C80 7502


[-- Attachment #2: signature.asc --]
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Re: Delete marked files from dired

[Emanuel Berg]

Yuri Khan <yuri.v.khan@gmail.com> writes:

>> He is marking them with keys * s which is
>> `dired-mark-subdir-files'. x, or
>> `dired-do-flagged-delete' doesn't work then (it
>> does for d, `dired-flag-file-deletion', as you
>> mention) but perhaps the OP was unaware of that
>> method as well so why not.
>
> Does somebody remember the story of different marks?
>
> I mean, Dired has D for flagging for deletion, * for
> marking for most other operations, and a command to
> change one mark to another. Ibuffer has D for
> killing and > for other operations.

I don't remember because I never knew, but there can
be tons of application. For example, one target file
and one source; then hit a key to invoke source on
target (e.g., move a file into a dir or feed indata
from a text file as argument to an executable).

In this case, I suspect it is to separate deletion
from everything else, as a convenience/security
mechanism. Which makes sense!

> Most other file managers have just one kind of mark
> and it works the same way for copying, moving,
> and deleting.

One counterexample is Gnus, tho not a generic file
manager, in practice is/could be just that with
respect to mail/articles/posts, which are/can be
stored as individual files (depending on backend).

In Gnus, there are tons of markings, even parallel
systems: e.g., one that tells the message have been
opened (or "read"), R, and one that tells it has been
answered, a.

-- 
underground experts united
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573

Re: Delete marked files from dired

[Emanuel Berg]

notbob <notbob@nothome.com> writes:

>> *c*Dx This is change the * marks to D marks (D for
>> deletion). Then execute (x).
>
> Works like a champ! Thank you, so much, Marco. ;)

Still, you don't need it with `dired-do-delete'.
Bind it to a key, say D, and you can do

    * s D

With this suggestion, it'd be

    * s * c * D x

-- 
underground experts united
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573

Re: Delete marked files from dired

[Emanuel Berg]

Emanuel Berg <moasen@zoho.com> writes:

> In Gnus, there are tons of markings, even parallel
> systems: e.g., one that tells the message have been
> opened (or "read"), R, and one that tells it has
> been answered, a.

Oups, that should be a capital A!

You Gnus, you learn.

-- 
underground experts united
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573

Re: Delete marked files from dired

[Robert Thorpe]

Emanuel Berg <moasen@zoho.com> writes:

> notbob <notbob@nothome.com> writes:
>
>>> *c*Dx This is change the * marks to D marks (D for
>>> deletion). Then execute (x).
>>
>> Works like a champ! Thank you, so much, Marco. ;)
>
> Still, you don't need it with `dired-do-delete'.
> Bind it to a key, say D, and you can do
>
>     * s D
>
> With this suggestion, it'd be
>
>     * s * c * D x

I agree with Emanuel's suggestion The "* s D" is quicker.

Also, you do not need to re-map "D".  In Dired "D" is mapped to
dired-do-delete by default.

BR,
Robert Thorpe

Re: Delete marked files from dired

[Emanuel Berg]

Robert Thorpe wrote:

> I agree with Emanuel's suggestion The "* s D"
> is quicker.

Come to think of it, perhaps it is good it's
not *too* quick! I once deleted a file
accidentally. It wasn't terribly important,
just complete access to Fort Knox. Still, it
bothered me at the time having lost that
file...

> Also, you do not need to re-map "D". In Dired
> "D" is mapped to dired-do-delete by default.

Oh, yeah? And you don't think for such an
important key, setting it up twice can be
a virtue?

-- 
underground experts united
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573

Re: Delete marked files from dired

[Harry Putnam]

Emanuel Berg <moasen@zoho.com> writes:

> Oh, yeah? And you don't think for such an
> important key, setting it up twice can be
> a virtue?

hehe... that made my chuckle for the day.

Re: Delete marked files from dired

[notbob]

On 2017-06-02, notbob <notbob@nothome.com> wrote:
> On 2017-06-02, Marco Wahl <marcowahlsoft@gmail.com> wrote:

>> *c*Dx

This still works, perfectly, but now, how do I "force" delete, so I
don't hafta answer y/n fer all recursive (filled) directories?  ;)

nb  

Re: Delete marked files from dired

[notbob]

On 2017-06-15, notbob <notbob@nothome.com> wrote:
> On 2017-06-02, notbob <notbob@nothome.com> wrote:
>> On 2017-06-02, Marco Wahl <marcowahlsoft@gmail.com> wrote:

>>> *c*Dx

> This still works, perfectly, but now, how do I "force" delete, so I
> don't hafta answer y/n fer all recursive (filled) directories?  ;)

I found this:

"You can delete empty directories just like other files, but normally
Dired cannot delete directories that are nonempty. If the variable
dired-recursive-deletes is non-nil, then Dired can delete nonempty
directories including all their contents. That can be somewhat risky."

So, how do I set the above named variable or, better yet, how do I
invoke it w/o changing my emacs config file?  I've got some changes in
my ~/.emacs file, but I don't really understand 'em all.  They were
suggestions by others, much like this Q.  ;)

nb --not the sharpest knife in the emacs drawer 

Re: Delete marked files from dired

[Marcin Borkowski]

On 2017-06-15, at 03:17, notbob <notbob@nothome.com> wrote:

> On 2017-06-02, notbob <notbob@nothome.com> wrote:
>> On 2017-06-02, Marco Wahl <marcowahlsoft@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>> *c*Dx
>
> This still works, perfectly, but now, how do I "force" delete, so I
> don't hafta answer y/n fer all recursive (filled) directories?  ;)

How about "!rm -rRET" ?

(Also, for large directories it seems much faster than Dired's deletion
mechanism - after all, it's compiled C, not interpreted Lisp;-) - which
for larges sizes trumps the process overhead.)

Hth,

--
Marcin Borkowski

Re: Delete marked files from dired

[Emanuel Berg]

notbob <notbob@nothome.com> writes:

> This still works, perfectly, but now, how do
> I "force" delete, so I don't hafta answer y/n fer
> all recursive (filled) directories? ;)

Try this:

    (setq dired-recursive-deletes 'always)
    (setq dired-deletion-confirmer (lambda (x) t))

-- 
underground experts united
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Re: Delete marked files from dired

[Ralf Fassel]

* notbob <notbob@nothome.com>
| [...] If the variable dired-recursive-deletes is non-nil, then Dired
| can delete nonempty directories including all their contents. That can
| be somewhat risky."
>
| So, how do I set the above named variable or, better yet, how do I
| invoke it w/o changing my emacs config file?

M-x customize-variable RET dired-recursive-deletes RET

But make sure you really really really want to delete non-empty
directories (especially $HOME :-) without confirmation.

HTH
R'

Re: Delete marked files from dired

[notbob]

On 2017-06-15, Ralf Fassel <ralfixx@gmx.de> wrote:

> M-x customize-variable RET dired-recursive-deletes RET

The first part of yer solution works, but not the 2nd part.  I get a
response of "[No match]".  Backing up a bit and letting emacs do an
auto-completion only yields:

-----

Possible completions are:
dired-kept-versions
dired-listing-switches

-----

I use slrn fer news, but emacs is my general editor.  This ona Slackware
14.1 box using emacs 24.3.1.  ;)

nb

Re: Delete marked files from dired

[notbob]

On 2017-06-16, notbob <notbob@nothome.com> wrote:

> On 2017-06-15, Ralf Fassel <ralfixx@gmx.de> wrote:
>
>> M-x customize-variable RET dired-recursive-deletes RET
>
> The first part of yer solution works, but not the 2nd part.  I get a
> response of "[No match]".  Backing up a bit and letting emacs do an
> auto-completion only yields:
>
> -----
>
> Possible completions are:
> dired-kept-versions
> dired-listing-switches
>
> -----
>
> I use slrn fer news, but emacs is my general editor.  This ona Slackware
> 14.1 box using emacs 24.3.1.  ;)

OK, my bad.  Turns out you gotta be IN dired mode fer the variable to
show up.  I used another xterm to put me in an non-dired mode of emacs
and that does NOT work.  Now all I gotta do is learn how the
"customize" screen works.  Thank you.  ;)

nb

Re: Delete marked files from dired

[Marcin Borkowski]

On 2017-06-16, at 17:53, notbob <notbob@nothome.com> wrote:

> OK, my bad.  Turns out you gotta be IN dired mode fer the variable to
> show up.  I used another xterm to put me in an non-dired mode of emacs
> and that does NOT work.  Now all I gotta do is learn how the
> "customize" screen works.  Thank you.  ;)

Not exactly.  The variable is defined in dired.el, and so is not defined
in Emacs until this file is actually loaded, e.g. by means of (require
'dired) or by using an autoloaded command (e.g. M-x dired, aka C-x d).
You may try putting (require 'dired) in your init.el (or just saying M-:
(require 'dired)) - the variable will be there for you to customize
without starting dired even once.

Best,

--
Marcin Borkowski

Re: Delete marked files from dired

[Ralf Fassel]

* notbob <notbob@nothome.com>
| OK, my bad.  Turns out you gotta be IN dired mode fer the variable to
| show up.  I used another xterm to put me in an non-dired mode of emacs
| and that does NOT work.

Might be that the variable is not known to emacs until dired-mode is
actually loaded.

| Now all I gotta do is learn how the "customize" screen works.

Might be easier to just put

  (setq dired-recursive-deletes 'always)

in your .emacs (maybe accompanied by a comment indicating what this
does), but I thought the 'GUI'-approach might be the way to go these
days... :-)

HTH
R'

Re: Delete marked files from dired

[Emanuel Berg]

Ralf Fassel wrote:

> Might be easier to just put
>
>   (setq dired-recursive-deletes 'always)
>
> in your .emacs (maybe accompanied by a comment
> indicating what this does)

You could, but "recursive" as in recursion or
recursive descent is a good word to know.

Many of the shell tools has an option to do
whatever recursively, and I'd say drill down
a directory hierarchy is the most common
use case.

-- 
underground experts united
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573

Re: Delete marked files from dired

[notbob]

On 2017-06-19, Ralf Fassel <ralfixx@gmx.de> wrote:

> Might be easier to just put
>
>   (setq dired-recursive-deletes 'always)

Not sure if it is actually easier, but at least it works!  Thank you,
Ralf.

Apparently, "nil" is not acceptable.  I had "t" in there, before.  With
"'always", it always seems to work.  DUH!  

Thank you to all you emacs fans.  I asked this question a few yrs ago
and no one answered.  Looks like we have some new blood.  ;)

nb

Re: Delete marked files from dired

[Emanuel Berg]

notbob wrote:

>> Might be easier to just put
>> (setq dired-recursive-deletes 'always)
>
> Not sure if it is actually easier, but at
> least it works! Thank you, Ralf.

It is easier. Make a shortcut to bring up the
config file. Make an edit and re-evaluate the
individual defun (or form). Done.

The more you do it the quicker it'll be because
you will be better and better at Lisp. Which is
a gain in itself.

Only if you do it *too* much you'll start doing
all sorts'a things in Lisp. Then it will be
much, much slower :)

> Thank you to all you emacs fans. I asked this
> question a few yrs ago and no one answered.
> Looks like we have some new blood. ;)

Perhaps new blood in the sense that the old
blood is even older...

-- 
underground experts united
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573

Re: Delete marked files from dired

[Ralf Fassel]

* notbob <notbob@nothome.com>
| On 2017-06-19, Ralf Fassel <ralfixx@gmx.de> wrote:
>
| > Might be easier to just put
| >
| >   (setq dired-recursive-deletes 'always)
>
| Not sure if it is actually easier, but at least it works!  Thank you,
| Ralf.

Da nich für... ;-)

| Thank you to all you emacs fans.  I asked this question a few yrs ago
| and no one answered.

Must have missed your message then :-)))

| Looks like we have some new blood.  ;)

Thanks for the flowers (my contributions to fortran.el date some time back :-)

R'

Re: Delete marked files from dired

[Emanuel Berg]

Ralf Fassel wrote:

> Thanks for the flowers (my contributions to
> fortran.el date some time back :-)

Ha ha ha! :)

Fortran, "Formula Translation", from IBM in
1957, perhaps the oldest programming language
still in use.

It beats Lisp by a single year!

Fortran tho obviously cannot be compared to
Lisp which is to programming what the
Pythagoras Theorem and unit circle are to
geometry, or what riot gear and a baton are to
a police officer at a peaceful G8 summit...

-- 
underground experts united
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