RE: Delete marked files from dired

[Drew Adams <drew.adams@oracle.com>]

> 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.