Re: Delete marked files from dired

[Emanuel Berg]

Yuri Khan <yuri.v.khan@gmail.com> writes:

>> He is marking them with keys * s which is
>> `dired-mark-subdir-files'. x, or
>> `dired-do-flagged-delete' doesn't work then (it
>> does for d, `dired-flag-file-deletion', as you
>> mention) but perhaps the OP was unaware of that
>> method as well so why not.
>
> Does somebody remember the story of different marks?
>
> I mean, Dired has D for flagging for deletion, * for
> marking for most other operations, and a command to
> change one mark to another. Ibuffer has D for
> killing and > for other operations.

I don't remember because I never knew, but there can
be tons of application. For example, one target file
and one source; then hit a key to invoke source on
target (e.g., move a file into a dir or feed indata
from a text file as argument to an executable).

In this case, I suspect it is to separate deletion
from everything else, as a convenience/security
mechanism. Which makes sense!

> Most other file managers have just one kind of mark
> and it works the same way for copying, moving,
> and deleting.

One counterexample is Gnus, tho not a generic file
manager, in practice is/could be just that with
respect to mail/articles/posts, which are/can be
stored as individual files (depending on backend).

In Gnus, there are tons of markings, even parallel
systems: e.g., one that tells the message have been
opened (or "read"), R, and one that tells it has been
answered, a.

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