dotfiles/modules/dired.org

#+TITLE: Dired
#+AUTHOR: Christopher James Hayward
#+EMAIL: chris@chrishayward.xyz

#+PROPERTY: header-args:emacs-lisp :tangle dired.el :comments org
#+PROPERTY: header-args            :results silent :eval no-export :comments org

#+OPTIONS: num:nil toc:nil todo:nil tasks:nil tags:nil
#+OPTIONS: skip:nil author:nil email:nil creator:nil timestamp:nil

Emacs has a built-in directory editor.

* Config

Emacs has some really amazing built-in packages, and ~dired~[fn:1] is one of them. It completly coveres everything you would expect from a file manager, but it's not perfect out of the box.

** Current directory

I don't want to press =RET= twice to navigate to the current directory. There's a way to get around this problem with ~jump~, included in the ~dired-x~ package, included with Emacs.

#+begin_src emacs-lisp
(require 'dired-x)
#+end_src

** Reusing the same buffer

By default, ~dired~[fn:1] will create a new buffer each time you press =RET= over a directory. This leads to unwanted buffers all over the place. Avoid this behaviour with ~dired-single~[fn:2], reusing the same ~dired~ buffer.

+ Move up a directory with =h=
+ Open a single buffer with =l=

#+begin_src emacs-lisp
(use-package dired-single
  :config (evil-collection-define-key 'normal 'dired-mode-map
            "h" 'dired-single-up-directory
            "l" 'dired-single-buffer))
#+end_src

* Shortcuts

Open a new dired buffer using the ~jump~ command with =SPC d=.

#+begin_src emacs-lisp
(dotfiles/leader
  "d" '(dired-jump :which-key "Dired"))
#+end_src

* Footnotes

[fn:1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dired

[fn:2] https://github.com/crocket/dired-single