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MELPA MELPA Stable

diredc - Midnight Commander features (plus) for emacs dired-mode

  • Current users! See the NEWS.org file for the new features...

direc_basic_screenshot

This package extends emacs' dired-mode with features found in almost all file managers, and also some unique features:

  • Resilient dedicated dual-pane frame.
    • similar look to midnight commander.
    • intelligent recovery of manually altered frame configuration
    • exit diredc/dired cleanly and totally
  • Navigable directory history
    • backward, forward, or to a direct history entry
  • File quick-preview mode
    • inspired by, and similar to, midnight commander's "C-x q"
    • customizable exclusion criteria to suppress undesirable files (eg. binaries)
    • optionally view magit status buffers for repository roots
  • Current file's supplemental information in minibuffer (optional)
    • eg. output from getfattr, getfacl, stat, exif.
  • Multiple panel views
    • inspired by, and similar to, midnight commander's "M-t"
      • superior configurability
      • directly choose a specific panel view, or toggle to next
  • Extensive and easy-to-use sort options
    • including options not in 'ls': sort by chmod, owner, group
  • Swap panels (use "M-u")
    • inspired by, and similar to, midnight commander's "C-u"
      • a TRUE and complete swap (including history entries)
  • Trash management
    • per xfreedesktop standard
    • restore trashed files to their original locations
    • empty the trash, along with its administrative overhead
    • view trash summary information
  • Navigate "up" n parent directories ("^" or C-u ^")
  • Launch persistent asynchronous processes for files
    • Processes will survive even after exiting Emacs.
  • Quick shell window
    • choose your default shell / terminal emulation mode
    • choose your default shell program
    • easily opt for pre-configured alternatives
    • useful pre-defined shell variables
      • $d1, $d2 dired-directory in this/other pane
      • $f1, $f2 current dired file in this/other pane
      • $t1, $t2 tagged elements in this other pane
        • as a shell array variable, if supported by the shell
      • $INSIDE_DIREDC value of variable diredc--version
  • Bookmark support
  • Edit dired buffers (really wdired-mode, not diredc)
  • Set both panels to same directory (use "=" or "C-u =")
    • inspired by midnight commanders "M-i"
  • Fontify filenames based upon their names or extensions
    • fontify executable suffix symbol
  • Optional "drilled-down" view of "sparse" paths (use "}", "{")
    • ie. ./paths/with/only/single/entries
    • Uses a diredc-patched version of external package dired-collapse.

Bonus customization features

  • Customize colors for chmod bits (font-lock)
  • toggle display of "hidden" or "undesirable" files (dired-omit mode)
  • highlight current line (hl-line-mode)
    • current buffer highlights with a unique face.
  • don`t wrap long lines (toggle-truncate-lines)
  • to disable:
    • option 1: M-x customize-variable diredc-bonus-configuration
    • option 2: (setq diredc-bonus-configuration nil)

Dependencies (all are already part of emacs):

  • dired -- ... (doh) ...
  • dired-x -- for dired-guess-default, dired-omit-mode
  • dired-aux -- for dired-compress-files
  • help-mode -- for help button widget
  • hl-line -- for hl-line-mode
  • subr -- for string-match-p
  • term -- for term-line-mode, term-send-input
  • view -- for view-mode

Suggested (not part of emacs):

  • popup -- for popup-menu*
  • key-assist -- for key-assist

Installation:

The easiest way to download and install diredc is from within the Emacs package installer, from the MELPA repository. If you've never used MELPA, here's how to get started. Otherwise:

  1. Evaluate or load the diredc elisp file.

  2. I recommend defining a global keybinding for function `diredc', with a preference for Shift-F11, as follows:

    (global-set-key (kbd "S-<f11>") 'diredc))

  3. An alternative or additional option would be:

    (global-set-key [remap dired-other-frame] 'diredc)

Operation:

Running diredc an initial time creates and selects a frame named diredc with two side-by-side dired windows / buffers. Repeating the command will return you to your prior frame / window / buffer. Subsequent use of the command continues to toggle back and forth to/from the named diredc frame.

In addition to the usual Emacs keybinding help, diredc provides two combination keybinding cheat-sheets and command launchers, both using optional dependency package key-assist. You can also interactively call M-x key-assist <RET> <RET> to view an exhaustive dired keybinding listing. A separate key-assist is provided for trash-related functions because it also displays the current trash state statistics.

 h                        `diredc-key-assist`
 C-<delete> ?             `diredc-trash-key-assist`
 ?                        `diredc-summary`
 C-h m                    `describe-mode`

Navigation from one dired panel to another can be accomplished using <TAB> or S-<TAB>. As long as you are in diredc mode, navigating to new directories should not accumulate additional dired buffers and your directory navigation history for each panel should be remembered. If ever you find that the frame configuration has become botched, or you somehow accumulate or have lost dired buffers, Run M-x diredc-recover. You can also cleanly kill all dired buffers and the diredc frame using C-q (M-x diredc-quit). And, if you want to use dired without the diredc features, run M-x diredc-mode to toggle the mode off.

As mentioned above, each dired panel now "remembers" its navigation history. The history can be traversed sequentially backward C-<left> or forward C-<right> without losing elements, and can be viewed and traversed non-sequentially using C-u /. Use / to directly navigate to a directory not nearby.

A file preview mode can be entered or exited using C-x q (M-x diredc-browse-mode). In that mode, whenever a dired buffer's POINT is on a file's line, that file will be opened on the other pane, in read-only emacs view-mode (see there for the navigation and other features of that mode). The view-mode buffer is deleted automatically when you either disable the mode or you move point to another line in the dired buffer. Use <TAB> or S-<TAB> to navigate between the dired buffer window and the file preview window. There are several options for excluding undesirable files (eg. binaries) from preview; see the mode's docstring for details.

The 'file preview' mode can also be configured to display the magit-status of a repository's root directory. See customization variable diredc-browse-magit.

The traditional dired operations that find or open a file should do so to a separate frame, most likely the one from which you came to the diredc frame.

The traditional dired feature to perform arbitrary asynchronous operations on a file or set of files has been enhanced to make those processes persistent, to survive even after exiting Emacs. Thus, with the default keybinding, you can press '&' and have the selected file(s) launched in the system-default external application. Do be advised, though, that this comes at the expense of losing the processes' Async Shell Command buffer and its log of STDOUT / STDERR for the processes. The former, non-persistent behavior can be opted for at run-time by prefixing the command with a SPACE (eg. " foo") or for the default command simply enter just a SPACE. The former, non-persistent behavior can be made default by modifying variable diredc-async-processes-are-persistent.

Pressing RETURN on files that you don't want opened in Emacs, doesn't. Pre-existing dired variable dired-guess-shell-alist-user is used as reference, and pressing RETURN runs on the selected file the first associated executable in that list. If you really do want to find the find in Emacs, press C-u RETURN instead.

The display format of dired buffers can be "hot-swapped" using M-t (M-x diredc-display-toggle). Use C-u M-t to select from available display formats, and customize the list using defcustom variable diredc-display--listing-switches-list. Four views are provided by default, all long-format but with different file block-sizes (byte, Kb, Mb), and several other differences.

The traditional dired sort feature has been greatly enhanced with a clearer UI and many more sorting options.

The diredc buffers themselves can also be "hot-swapped", using 'M-u' (M-x diredc-swap-windows).

While emacs does have a native defcustom variable delete-by-moving-to-trash to control whether to "really" delete files, diredc allows one or more trashed items to be restored, allows the trash to be emptied, and conveniently present trash statistics. Here are the relevant commands and their default keybindings. See each's docstring for more details:

 C-<delete> SPC           `diredc-trash-toggle`
 C-<delete> <insertchar>  `diredc-trash-toggle`

 C-<delete> i             `diredc-trash-info`

 C-<delete> j             `diredc-trash-view`
 C-<delete> v             `diredc-trash-view`

 C-<delete> C-<delete>    `diredc-trash-empty`
 C-<delete> x             `diredc-trash-empty`

 C-<delete> r             `diredc-trash-restore`

 C-k                      `diredc-trash-quick-delete`

 C-<delete> ?             `diredc-trash-assistant`

A limitation in dired is its inability to natively present a file's supplemental information, such as its possible extended access control list or extended file attributes. diredc allows this and more to be presented in the minibuffer echo area as you navigate a diredc buffer. Use M-x diredc-show-more-file-info to toggle through the default possibilities, or customize the diredc-show-more-file-info-list to present the metadata of your choice.

 C-c ?     `diredc-show-more-file-info`

diredc brings bookmarks to dired:

 C-c + a   `diredc-bookmark-add`
 C-c + j   `diredc-bookmark-jump`
 C-c + e   `diredc-bookmark-edit`

Emacs has a nifty mode to "edit" a dired buffer, bringing the power of emacs to the application of renaming files. diredc just gives you the little bit of extra help with convenient keybindings E and e to enter the mode. If you're happy with your edits, you apply them and exit the mode with C-c C-c, or abort your editing session with C-c C-k.

The diredc-shell command opens up any type of emacs shell or terminal emulator window and pre-seeds it with useful dired values (see section "Extra Features", below).

 '         `diredc-shell`
 C-c !     `diredc-shell`
 C-c C-k   `diredc-shell-kill`

For further information, KRTM, the package's docstrings and the package's defcustom group.

Configuration

You can browse and edit this mode's list of defcustoms using "M-x customize-group diredc", but there isn't too much to be found there. Separately, you might want to redefine the default keybindings, but otherwise there is nothing really important about diredc itself to configure.

dired mode itself, however, is a complex and highly configurable package that has been under development for over 25 years. That's a long time for options to accumulate and for opinions to multiply. The diredc developer (ahem: me) has considerately imposed his preferences upon you by default, in a way trivial to over-ride. If you don't want them, toggle the value of defcustom diredc-bonus-configuration to nil, an the settings will revert upon selecting new buffers. The bonus customization features are listed above, in the 'Commentary' section, or you could peek at the source code of function diredc-bonus-configuration.

The colorization for each buffer's selected line is set as part of diredc-bonus-configuration, but because it's controlled by hl-line-mode; you can independently toggle the feature per-buffer, and you can change the highlighting colors using "M-x customize-face" for faces hl-line and diredc-hl-current-buffer. The colorization of the chmod bits are also set as part of diredc-bonus-configuration; you can find their definitions and edit them using "M-x customize-group diredc".

Extra Features:

*] Navigating to a parent directory with dired-up-directory (default: ^) can use the prefix-argument to navigate multiple levels in one operation.

*] Use dired-hist-change-directory (default: /) to jump to a location not nearby without losing the current dired buffer's history.

*] Use the prefix-argument with diredc-hist-change-directory to have diredc-hist-select display all elements of the Dired buffer's history and allow you to jump directly to any of them.

*] Use diredc-hist-duplicate (default: =) to either navigate to another dired buffer to your current one's directory, or with the prefix-argument to navigate your current dired buffer to another's directory.

*] Modify data structure diredc-recover-schemes to apply your own custom recovery strategies. Share them for others` benefit!

*] Use diredc-trash-quick-delete (default: C-k) on a POINT or a REGION to quick-delete the selected files. Use the prefix-arg to toggle between "trashing" or deleting.

*] When diredc-hist-mode is disabled, the following functions continue to operate, but without updating the history records, so you can use them as your default dired functions even if you don't always want to use diredc-hist-mode.

  `diredc-hist-change-directory`
  `diredc-hist-up-directory`
  `diredc-hist-duplicate`
  `diredc-hist-find-file`
  `diredc-hist-find-file-other-window`
  `diredc-hist-find-alternate-file`

*] diredc passes to the shell/terminal-emulator instance the following shell variables:

  $d1 - this `diredc` windows's directory name
  $d2 - directory name of other visible `diredc` window
  $f1 - this `diredc` window's file name at POINT
  $f2 - file name at POINT  of other visible `diredc` window
  $t1 - this `diredc` window's list of tagged file names
  $t2 - list of tagged file names  of other visible `diredc` window

If the selected shell supports array variables, then $t1 and $t2
will be set as such; Otherwise, elements will be quoted and
delimited with a space.

*] universal fallback guess shell command(s)

*] Use diredc-collapse-mode (default: { or }) to view that single file at the bottom of a "sparse" path, ie. ./path/with/only/single/entry. This feature respects dired-omit-mode.

Feedback:

  • It's best to contact me by opening an 'issue' on the program's github repository (see above) or, distant second-best, by direct e-mail.

  • Code contributions are welcome and github starring is appreciated.

Compatibility

This package has been tested under Debian linux Emacs version 26 and 27. The main compatibility issue to be aware of is that this suite needs to modify[1] a single line in function dired-internal-no-select of the standard emacs file dired.el. This was accomplished by advising a wrapper function diredc--advice--dired-internal-noselect around the original. If that function ever changes, that advice function and this suite will need to account for that.

[1] emacs bug #44023: https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=44023"

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Midnight Commander features (plus) for emacs dired-mode

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