Re: Dired: how to mark with other character but *

[Michael Heerdegen <michael_heerdegen@web.de>]

Jean Louis <bugs@gnu.support> writes:

> I would like to use this specific workflow in Dired like following:
> [...]

As far as I know there is nothing built-in that matches exactly what you
are looking for.

Using different marker chars can be very useful, but it's not that
convenient.  Personally, I have implemented a "secondary" mark.  What I
sometimes miss is the ability to use multiple marks per file.

Anyway, maybe you would like something like this:

#+begin_src emacs-lisp
(defun my-dired-with-marker-prefix-command (char)
  "Prefix command temporarily changing marker char."
  (interactive "cMarker char for next command: ")
  (let ((old-dired-marker-char dired-marker-char)
        (used-once nil))
    (setq dired-marker-char char)
    (letrec ((f (lambda ()
                  (if (not used-once)
                      (setq used-once t)
                    (setq dired-marker-char old-dired-marker-char)
                    (remove-hook 'post-command-hook f 'local)))))
      (add-hook 'post-command-hook f nil 'local))))
#+end_src

A different approach is use stored sets of marked files.  Again, there
is no built-in solution for this (apart from the neglected "virtual
dired" maybe).  AFAIR, dired+ supports this, maybe also other packages.

It's also relatively simple to setup registers for that purpose.


Regards,

Michael.