From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Drew Adams Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: RE: Delete marked files from dired Date: Fri, 2 Jun 2017 08:40:36 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <46e8d5f9-db01-4d73-896b-a30d3d84001a@default> References: <868tlbqp8j.fsf@local.lan> NNTP-Posting-Host: blaine.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Trace: blaine.gmane.org 1496418081 2118 195.159.176.226 (2 Jun 2017 15:41:21 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@blaine.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 2 Jun 2017 15:41:21 +0000 (UTC) To: Yuri Khan , help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Fri Jun 02 17:41:15 2017 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by blaine.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.84_2) (envelope-from ) id 1dGohP-0008WL-2j for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Fri, 02 Jun 2017 17:41:15 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:50338 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1dGohR-0006XM-5o for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Fri, 02 Jun 2017 11:41:17 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:47541) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1dGogy-0006X4-Ed for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Fri, 02 Jun 2017 11:40:49 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1dGogt-0004md-Ew for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Fri, 02 Jun 2017 11:40:48 -0400 Original-Received: from aserp1040.oracle.com ([141.146.126.69]:43365) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.0:DHE_RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:32) (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1dGogt-0004m0-4j for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Fri, 02 Jun 2017 11:40:43 -0400 Original-Received: from userv0022.oracle.com (userv0022.oracle.com [156.151.31.74]) by aserp1040.oracle.com (Sentrion-MTA-4.3.2/Sentrion-MTA-4.3.2) with ESMTP id v52Fed1E017800 (version=TLSv1.2 cipher=ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 bits=256 verify=OK); Fri, 2 Jun 2017 15:40:39 GMT Original-Received: from aserv0122.oracle.com (aserv0122.oracle.com [141.146.126.236]) by userv0022.oracle.com (8.14.4/8.14.4) with ESMTP id v52FectX008429 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 bits=256 verify=OK); Fri, 2 Jun 2017 15:40:38 GMT Original-Received: from abhmp0009.oracle.com (abhmp0009.oracle.com [141.146.116.15]) by aserv0122.oracle.com (8.14.4/8.14.4) with ESMTP id v52Fecve020325; Fri, 2 Jun 2017 15:40:38 GMT In-Reply-To: X-Priority: 3 X-Mailer: Oracle Beehive Extensions for Outlook 2.0.1.9.1 (1003210) [OL 12.0.6767.5000 (x86)] X-Source-IP: userv0022.oracle.com [156.151.31.74] X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.4.x-2.6.x [generic] [fuzzy] X-Received-From: 141.146.126.69 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.21 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: "help-gnu-emacs" Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:113325 Archived-At: > Does somebody remember the story of different marks? >=20 > 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. >=20 > Most other file managers have just one kind of mark and > it works the same way for copying, moving, and deleting. >=20 > 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.