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Epsilon User's Manual and Reference

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Directory Editing

Dired Subcommands

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Dired Subcommands

The N and P commands go to the next and previous files, respectively.

The E, <Space>, and <Enter> keys let you examine the contents of a file. They invoke the find-file command on the file, making the current window display this file instead of the dired buffer. To conveniently return to the dired buffer, use the select-buffer command (Ctrl-x b). Press <Enter> when prompted for the buffer name and the previous buffer shown in the current window (in this case, the dired buffer) will reappear.

When applied to a subdirectory, these keys invoke another dired on that directory, using the name of the directory for that dired buffer. If you have marked files for deletion or copying, and you run a dired on the same directory, the markings go away.

The "." or "^" keys invoke a dired on the parent directory of the directory associated with the current dired buffer.

To set Epsilon's current directory to the directory being displayed, press G (for Go). If the current line names a directory, Epsilon will make that be the current directory. If the current line names a file, Epsilon will set the current directory to the one containing that file.

Press D to flag a file that you wish to delete. Epsilon will mark the file for deletion by placing a "D" before its name. (You may delete empty directories in the same way.) Press C or M to select files for copying or moving (renaming), respectively. Epsilon will mark the files by placing C or M before their names. The U command unmarks the file on the current line, removing any marks before its name.

The X command actually deletes, copies, or moves the marked files. Epsilon will list all the files marked for deletion and ask you to confirm that you want them deleted. If any files are marked for copying or moving, Epsilon will ask for the destination directory into which the files are to be copied or moved. If there is only one file to copy or move, you can also specify a file name destination, so you can use the command for renaming files. (In this case, Alt-g will copy the original file name so you can edit it.) Epsilon prompts for a single destination for all files to be copied, and another for all files to be moved.

If you try to delete a read-only file, Epsilon will prompt first; see the dired-confirmation variable to change this. If you try to delete a non-empty directory, Epsilon will similarly ask for confirmation before deleting the entire directory hierarchy. Similar prompts occur if you try to overwrite an existing local file when copying or moving a file.

There are a few specialized commands for renaming files. Press Shift-L to mark a file for lowercasing its name, or Shift-U for uppercasing. When you execute with X, each marked file will be renamed by changing each uppercase character in its name to lowercase (or vice versa). (Note that Epsilon for Windows displays all-uppercase file names in lowercase by default, so Shift-U's effect may not be visible within Epsilon. See preserve-filename-case.)

Shift-R marks a file for a regular-expression replacement on its name. When you press X to execute operations on marked files, Epsilon will ask for a pattern and replacement text. Then, for each file marked with Shift-R, Epsilon will take the file name and perform the indicated regular expression replacement on it, generating a new name. Then Epsilon will rename the file to the new name. For instance, to rename a group of files like dir\file1.cxx, dir\file2.cxx, etc. to dir2\file1.cpp, dir2\file2.cpp, use Shift-R and specify dir\(.*).cxx as the search text and dir2\#1.cpp as the replacement text. To rename some .htm files to .html, specify .* as the search text and #0l as the replacement text.

By default, most files or directories that start with a period character . will be hidden. Pressing - toggles whether such files are hidden. The dired-show-dotfiles variable sets which files or directories are always shown regardless of this toggle. By default, dired entries for the current directory (.) and its parent (..) are always shown.

The ! dired subcommand prompts for a command line, then runs the specified program, adding the name of the current line's file after it. If the command line you type contains an *, Epsilon substitutes the current file name at that position instead of at the end. If the command line ends in a & character, Epsilon runs the program asynchronously; otherwise it waits for the program to finish.

The + command creates a new subdirectory. It asks for the name of the subdirectory to create.

The R command refreshes the current listing. Epsilon will use the original file pattern to rebuild the file listing. If you've marked files for copying, moving, or deleting, the markings will be discarded if you refresh, so Epsilon will prompt first to confirm that you want to do this.

The S key controls sorting. It prompts you to enter another letter to change the sorting method. Press N, E, S, or D to select sorting by file name, file extension, size, or time and date of modification, respectively. Press U to turn off sorting the next time Epsilon makes a dired listing, and display the file names in the same order they come from the operating system. (You can have Epsilon rebuild the current listing using the R subcommand.)

Press + or - at the sorting prompt to sort in ascending or descending order, respectively, or R to reverse the current sorting order.

Press G at the sorting prompt to toggle directory grouping. With directory grouping, Epsilon puts all subdirectories first in the list, then all files, and sorts each part individually. Without directory grouping, it mixes the two together (although it still puts . and .. first).

Under Windows, press A to display the file's current attributes (Hidden, System, Read-only and Archive) and specify a new attribute list. You can set the dired-layout variable under Windows to include these attributes in the dired listing itself, or customize dired's format in other ways (for instance, to get wider listings with full dates including seconds for local Unix files). Under Unix, A runs the chmod command, passing it the mode specification you type, such as g+w to let group members write to the file. For remote files accessed via Scp, Epsilon sends the mode specification you provide directly to the Sftp server. It must be in the form of Unix-style octal permission bits, like 0644.

Press @ to toggle the read-only property of the current file. Under macOS, Linux and FreeBSD, Epsilon uses your umask when making a file writable, like "chmod +w".

Press V to run the "viewer" for that file; the program assigned to it according to file associations. For programs, this will run the program. For document files, it typically opens the file in the program assigned to that file extension. For folders, it opens the folder in Windows File Explorer, macOS's Finder, or similar. See File Associations for information on associating Epsilon for Windows with particular file extensions.

Under Unix, V uses KDE, Gnome, or macOS file associations to run the viewer for the file. See the epsilon-viewer script to change which of these types of viewers Epsilon uses. For Gnome, run the gnomecc program to select a different viewer for a specific file type.

Press Shift-P to print the current file. Under Windows, press T to display the properties of a file or directory. (This is a convenient way to see the total size of all files in a directory.) Press F to search for text in a file name, skipping over matches in the columns for file size or date, by running incremental-search with a column restriction.

Several keys provide shortcuts for common operations. The 1 key examines the selected file in a window that occupies the whole screen (like typing Ctrl-x 1 E). The 2 key splits the current window horizontally and examines the selected file in the second window, leaving the dired buffer in the first (like typing Ctrl-x 2 E). The 5 key functions like the 2 key, but splits the window vertically (like typing Ctrl-x 5 E). The O key examines the selected file in the next window on the screen, without splitting windows any further. The Z key zooms the window to full-screen, then examines the selected file (like typing Ctrl-x z e).

Press Shift-E to examine the current file or directory, like <Enter>, but deleting the current dired buffer if you've moved to a new one. This runs the dired-examine-deleting function, while plain E runs dired-examine. You can swap these commands so plain E deletes old dired buffers while Shift-E doesn't, by adding these lines to your einit.ecm customization file (see Command Files):

~dired-tab "e": dired-examine-deleting
~dired-tab "E": dired-examine

(Similar lines can attach dired-examine-deleting to keys like <Space> or <Enter>. See Bindings.)

Press lowercase L to create a live link. First Epsilon creates a second window, if there's only one window to start with. (Provide a numeric argument to get vertical, not horizontal, window splitting.) Then Epsilon displays the file named on the current dired line in that window, in a special live link buffer. As you move around in the dired buffer, the live link buffer will automatically update to display the current file. Files over dired-live-link-limit bytes in size won't be shown, to avoid delays. See the wrap-dired-live-link variable to control how long lines display. Delete the live link buffer or window, or show a different buffer there, to stop the live linking.

Press Shift-G to mark files by content. This subcommand prompts for some search text. You can use the keys Ctrl-t, Ctrl-w and Ctrl-c when typing the search string to toggle regex mode, word mode, and case folding.

Then the subcommand prompts for a key to indicate what kind of marking to apply. Press d, m, or c to mark files for deletion, moving or copying, u to remove markings, U, L, or R to perform the corresponding renaming function described above, or g to apply a generic marking that simply indicates which files contained a match for the search string. A numeric prefix argument to this subcommand reverses the sense of its test, marking only files that don't contain the specified text.

Alt-[ and Alt-] move back and forward, respectively, by marks. They look at the mark on the current line (such as a D for deletion), then go to the next (or previous) line that has different markings. The copy-file-name command on Ctrl-c Alt-n copies the full pathname of the current line's file to the clipboard (just as it copies the current file's full pathname, in non-dired buffers).

Finally, typing H or ? while in dired displays help on these dired subcommands.

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Epsilon Programmer's Editor 14.04 manual. Copyright (C) 1984, 2021 by Lugaru Software Ltd. All rights reserved.