RE: dired omit mode

[Drew Adams]

> I want to have dot-files (.*) omitted:
> 
> dired-omit-files is a variable defined in `dired-x.el'.
> Its value is "^\\.?#\\|^\\.$\\|^\\.\\.$"
> 
> Isn't the first regular expression for matching dot-files?

No, ^\\.?# matches a file name that begins with either `#' or `.#', that is, an
autosave file or a lock file.  The other two parts match file names `.' and
`..'.

`C-h v dired-omit-files' tells you this:

  The default is to omit  `.', `..', auto-save
  files and lock files.

> Why are they still displayed when omit-mode ist active?

See above.  Try this value instead: ^#\|^[.].* - it should match all dot files
(including lock files), the directories `.' and `..', and autosave files.

> Another minor question: I've not loaded dired-x. Was it 
> pulled into from dired+ ?

Yes.  Dired+ has this code:

(require 'dired)
(require 'dired-aux)
(require 'dired-x nil t)

The last sexp means that Emacs tries to load Dired-X if it can find it, but no
error is raised if it cannot be loaded.