Re: operating on dired marked files

[François Gannaz]

Le jeu 26 jan 15:36, largo-linux a écrit :
> I would like to mark a number of files in dired and then use those
> files as arguments to a command.
> 
> but when i try this in dired, i.e. i mark three files then hit ! and
> then perhaps a perl script.  it seems only to output the results of the
> third file.  is there a way to do this so that it executes
> 
> script.pl file1.txt file2.txt file3.txt
> 

You should read the documentation, it is faster than asking here.
Typing C-h k ! gives :

** <quote> **
! runs the command dired-do-shell-command
   which is an interactive compiled Lisp function in `dired-aux'.
(dired-do-shell-command COMMAND &optional ARG FILE-LIST)

Run a shell command COMMAND on the marked files.
If no files are marked or a specific numeric prefix arg is given,
the next ARG files are used.  Just C-u means the current file.
The prompt mentions the file(s) or the marker, as appropriate.

If there is output, it goes to a separate buffer.

Normally the command is run on each file individually.
However, if there is a `*' in the command then it is run
just once with the entire file list substituted there.

[...]
** </quote> **

The last paragraph is exactly what you want.
--
François Gannaz