comparison man/dired.texi @ 46203:09a72d736076

Update description of * and ? for shell commands. Mention that v uses external viewers.

46202:abfe123bd6ff

to display the file, like the @kbd{o} command.

@item v
@kindex v @r{(Dired)}
@findex dired-view-file
View the file described on the current line, using @kbd{M-x view-file}
(@code{dired-view-file}).

Viewing a file is like visiting it, but is slanted toward moving around
in the file conveniently and does not allow changing the file.
@xref{Misc File Ops,View File, Miscellaneous File Operations}.

@item ^
@kindex ^ @r{(Dired)}
@findex dired-up-directory
Visit the parent directory of the current directory

(@pxref{Operating on Files}).  There are two ways of applying a shell
command to multiple files:

@itemize @bullet
@item
If you use @samp{*} in the shell command, then it runs just once, with
the list of file names substituted for the @samp{*}.  The order of file
names is the order of appearance in the Dired buffer.

Thus, @kbd{! tar cf foo.tar * @key{RET}} runs @code{tar} on the entire
list of file names, putting them into one tar file @file{foo.tar}.

@item
If the command string doesn't contain @samp{*}, then it runs once
@emph{for each file}, with the file name added at the end.

For example, @kbd{! uudecode @key{RET}} runs @code{uudecode} on each
file.
@end itemize

What if you want to run the shell command once for each file, with the
file name inserted in the middle?  You can use @samp{?} in the command
instead of @samp{*}.  The current file name is substituted for
@samp{?}.  You can use @samp{?} more than once.  For instance, here is
how to uuencode each file, making the output file name by appending
@samp{.uu} to the input file name:

@example
uuencode ? ? > ?.uu
@end example

To use the file names in a more complicated fashion, you can use a
shell loop.  For example, this shell command is another way to
uuencode each file:

@example
for file in *; do uuencode "$file" "$file" >"$file".uu; done
@end example

The working directory for the shell command is the top-level directory
of the Dired buffer.

The @kbd{!} command does not attempt to update the Dired buffer to show

46203:09a72d736076

to display the file, like the @kbd{o} command.

@item v
@kindex v @r{(Dired)}
@findex dired-view-file
View the file described on the current line, using either an external
viewing program or @kbd{M-x view-file} (@code{dired-view-file}).

@vindex dired-view-command-alist
External viewers are used for certain file types under the control of
@code{dired-view-command-alist}.  Viewing a file with @code{view-file}
is like visiting it, but is slanted toward moving around in the file
conveniently and does not allow changing the file.  @xref{Misc File
Ops,View File, Miscellaneous File Operations}.

@item ^
@kindex ^ @r{(Dired)}
@findex dired-up-directory
Visit the parent directory of the current directory

(@pxref{Operating on Files}).  There are two ways of applying a shell
command to multiple files:

@itemize @bullet
@item
If you use @samp{*} surrounded by whitespace in the shell command,
then the command runs just once, with the list of file names
substituted for the @samp{*}.  The order of file names is the order of
appearance in the Dired buffer.

Thus, @kbd{! tar cf foo.tar * @key{RET}} runs @code{tar} on the entire
list of file names, putting them into one tar file @file{foo.tar}.

If you want to use @samp{*} as a shell wildcard with whitespace around
it, write @samp{*""}.  In the shell, this is equivalent to @samp{*};
but since the @samp{*} is not surrounded by whitespace, Dired does
not treat it specially.

@item
If the command string doesn't contain @samp{*} surrounded by
whitespace, then it runs once @emph{for each file}.  Normally the file
name is added at the end.

For example, @kbd{! uudecode @key{RET}} runs @code{uudecode} on each
file.

@item
If the command string contains @samp{?} surrounded by whitespace, the
current file name is substituted for @samp{?}.  You can use @samp{?}
this way more than once in the command, and each occurrence is
replaced.  For instance, here is how to uuencode each file, making the
output file name by appending @samp{.uu} to the input file name:

@example
uuencode ? ? > ?.uu
@end example
@end itemize

To iterate over the file names in a more complicated fashion, use an
explicit shell loop.  For example, this shell command is another way
to uuencode each file:

@example
for file in * ; do uuencode "$file" "$file" >"$file".uu; done
@end example

@noindent
This simple example doesn't require a shell loop (you can do it
with @samp{?}, but it illustrates the technique.

The working directory for the shell command is the top-level directory
of the Dired buffer.

The @kbd{!} command does not attempt to update the Dired buffer to show