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From: Chris <chrisl_ak@hotmail.com>
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Subject: RE: alternatives to dired
Date: Sat, 05 Oct 2002 03:16:27 -0000
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on 04 Oct 2002, ken <ken@cleveland.lug.net> spake thusly:

> 
> When in emacs I do "C-h f dired", emacs says:
> 
> dired is an interactive autoloaded Lisp function in `dired'.
> 
> "Edit" directory DIRNAME--delete, rename, print, etc. some files in it.
> Optional second argument SWITCHES specifies the `ls' options used.
> (Interactively, use a prefix argument to be able to specify SWITCHES.)

You can also set the switches for a long and short (gotten to by C-x C-d) 
listing. The problem is, unless there is a -l switch present, dired doesn't 
function.