dired error: GNU-ls' "--full-time" in dired-listing-switches:

[David Combs]

Subject: dired error: GNU-ls' "--full-time" in dired-listing-switches:

As something simply to *look* at, the gnu-ls option "--full-time"
works really great in dired, giving you *to-the-second* date/times for even the
*oldest* files:

First, here's from a dired sorted by time:

@BEGIN(VERBATIM)
total 191196
  /dkcjunk:
  used 191606 available files

  -rw-r--r--    1 dkc      other      471896 Mar 12 18:16 foo7.mss
  -rw-r--r--    1 dkc      other      476378 Mar 12 18:15 foo7.mss~
  -rw-rw-r--    1 dkc      other      120396 Mar 12 17:41 phones.mss
  -rw-r--r--    1 dkc      other      106197 Mar 12 17:36 foo6.ps
  -rw-r--r--    1 dkc      other       84227 Mar 12 17:36 foo6.mss
  -rw-r--r--    1 dkc      other       82525 Mar 12 17:35 foo6.mss~
  -rw-r--r--    1 dkc      other        5757 Mar 12 17:30 foo5.err
  -rw-r--r--    1 dkc      other        9832 Mar 12 17:30 foo5.ps
  -rw-r--r--    1 dkc      other        8625 Mar 12 17:30 foo5.mss
  -rw-r--r--    1 dkc      other        2627 Mar 12 17:21 foo5.mss~
  -rw-r--r--    1 dkc      other       43809 Mar 12 17:17 foo5.out
...
...
  -rwxr-x---    1 dkc      staff        1002 Sep 22  1993 flipnameext.nawk
  -rwxr-----    1 dkc      other          16 Jun  5  1993 doublespace.sh
  -rwxr-x---    1 dkc      staff        4225 Feb 23  1993 auxfile.nawk
  -rw-r--r--    1 dkc      staff         549 Feb 10  1993 sum.awk
  -rwxr-x---    1 dkc      staff          85 Nov 21  1992 spaceoutcol9.nawk
@END(VERBATIM)
@; 

Note how the time-detail starts out in minutes (not seconds), and
furhter down (older) goes to only days.

Look what we get when we use GNU's ls, via doing

   "^u 5 M-x dired" -- which prompts me for switches for ls,
   defaulting to "-al", which I change to "-alt --full-time",
   and then get this dired-buffer:

 --NOTE the  time granularity it's *down to the second*!.

@BEGIN(VERBATIM)
  -rw-r--r--    1 dkc      other      471896 Sun Mar 12 18:16:43 2006 foo7.mss
  -rw-r--r--    1 dkc      other      476378 Sun Mar 12 18:15:15 2006 foo7.mss~
  -rw-rw-r--    1 dkc      other      120396 Sun Mar 12 17:41:18 2006 phones.mss
  -rw-r--r--    1 dkc      other       82525 Sun Mar 12 17:35:04 2006 foo6.mss~
  -rw-r--r--    1 dkc      other        5757 Sun Mar 12 17:30:20 2006 foo5.err
  -rw-r--r--    1 dkc      other        9832 Sun Mar 12 17:30:20 2006 foo5.ps
  -rw-r--r--    1 dkc      other        8625 Sun Mar 12 17:30:03 2006 foo5.mss
  -rw-r--r--    1 dkc      other        2627 Sun Mar 12 17:21:07 2006 foo5.mss~
  -rw-r--r--    1 dkc      other       43809 Sun Mar 12 17:17:15 2006 foo5.out
...
...
  -rwxr-x---    1 dkc      staff        1002 Wed Sep 22 16:47:23 1993 
flipnameext.nawk
  -rwxr-----    1 dkc      other          16 Sat Jun 05 16:53:06 1993 
doublespace.sh
  -rwxr-x---    1 dkc      staff        4225 Tue Feb 23 20:17:14 1993 
auxfile.nawk
  -rw-r--r--    1 dkc      staff         549 Wed Feb 10 22:03:53 1993 sum.awk
  -rwxr-x---    1 dkc      staff          85 Sat Nov 21 16:44:41 1992 
spaceoutcol9.nawk
@END(VERBATIM)
@; 

What's more, it *stays* that way, *never* switching to the "coarse" 
time-granularity.



Very, very nice!  (for me, that is -- maybe for you, too, sometimes)




---- ONE MINOR PROBLEM: "clicking" (hitting <return>) on a file DOESN'T READ IT 
IN!

WHY NOT?

So, what code-hack is needed to make dired need to be able to handle
the output from that GNU-ls "--full-time" switch?

*** HELP: I really do need dired to be compatible with "--full-time"! ***


------------ (my longwinded)  HERE'S WHY I NEED IT:


Over the last few years I've downloaded a *lot* of files from the internet,
so as to have them around, "for a rainy day", as documentation of one thing
or another -- articles on politics, emacs, solaris, all kinds of
things.

Unfortunately, I've merely collected these all these files into *one huge 
directory*.


But finally, at long last, I need to split them out into individual
directories -- according to what they're about: history/, politics/,
democrats/, emacs/, solaris/, ....

Trouble is, the file names I downloaded them under were, not always,
but all too often the names they were stored under on the web site I
got them from.  (Lazy-David says that it's just so much easier, when
using lynx, to hit "p" (print to file) and when it asked for the name
to store it under, to simply hit <return>, and accept whatever name it
offered.)

Thus the file-name itself is often not much of a clue.

Often the better thing for me to do is to look at the "ls -t"
sorted by time ("s" in dired) -- that way, things downloaded together show up
*adjacent* to each other.  BIG hint as to what's like what, ie how to
group them into subject-matter directories.

Now, "ls -lt" (ie dired + its "s" cmd) is fine -- until further down, 
when all the time-detail dissappears:

  -rw-rw-r--    1 dkc      other      120396 Mar 12 17:41 phones.mss
  -rw-r--r--    1 dkc      other      106197 Mar 12 17:36 foo6.ps
  -rw-r--r--    1 dkc      other       84227 Mar 12 17:36 foo6.mss
  -rw-r--r--    1 dkc      other       82525 Mar 12 17:35 foo6.mss~
  -rw-r--r--    1 dkc      other        5757 Mar 12 17:30 foo5.err
  -rw-r--r--    1 dkc      other        9832 Mar 12 17:30 foo5.ps
...
...
  -rwxr-x---    1 dkc      staff        1002 Sep 22  1993 flipnameext.nawk
  -rwxr-----    1 dkc      other          16 Jun  5  1993 doublespace.sh
  -rwxr-x---    1 dkc      staff        4225 Feb 23  1993 auxfile.nawk
  -rw-r--r--    1 dkc      staff         549 Feb 10  1993 sum.awk
  -rwxr-x---    1 dkc      staff          85 Nov 21  1992 spaceoutcol9.nawk

Which is why I want to use the GNU-ls "--full-time" switch: not only
is it to-the-second in time-granularity,  it stays that way
no matter *how* old the file is.

Of course, that hint about "probably covers related subject matter" isn't 100%: 
final-verification comes from
actually viewing the *contents*.

and thus the need for DIRED -- there sure ain't no easier way to do that!


Please, could one of you emacs-gurus come up with and post a fix --
and then of course get it stuck into cvs.

(It'd make my life *much* easier!)


THANKS SO MUCH!!!

David

PS: this problem seems independent of the version, occurring
in 21.3.2 as well as in 22.0.50.1.