dired mode single window? (emacs)

Question

is there a way to have dired operate in a single window so that when I traverse through directories I don't have n number of dired buffers for the intermediate directories? However - if I start another dired buffer in a completely separate directory (from the minibuffer rather than hitting [enter] on a subdirectory in an already open dired instance) I'd like to retain the two separate dired buffers... I guess I'm using ido-dired since I have ido-mode on but I don't know that the solution would be different? Thanks much!

Sorry y'all, I did Google for this beforehand, I promise! Didn't realize the answer was everywhere. But thanks for all the responses! — hatmatrix, Mar 03 '10 at 04:35
Duplicate question: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1839313/how-do-i-stop-emacs-dired-mode-from-opening-so-many-buffers/1839493 — scottfrazer, Mar 02 '10 at 11:55

score 19 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 03 '10 at 07:41

19

I reduce the dired-buffer clutter by hitting a (dired-find-alternate-file) on subdirectories, rather than RET; that recycles the current dired window.

edited Mar 03 '10 at 07:41

viam0Zah

25,949
8
77
100

answered Mar 02 '10 at 17:13

offby1

6,767
30
45

score 11 · Answer 2 · edited Sep 29 '16 at 07:59

http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/dired-single.el

;;; dired-single.el --- Reuse the current dired buffer to visit another directory...

;;; Commentary:
;;
;;  This package provides a way to reuse the current dired buffer to visit
;;  another directory (rather than creating a new buffer for the new directory).
;;  Optionally, it allows the user to specify a name that all such buffers will
;;  have, regardless of the directory they point to...

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 21 '11 at 21:04

2

Dired+ lets you do this optionally, and it lets you toggle it on/off anytime.

See also http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/DiredReuseDirectoryBuffer.

answered Aug 21 '11 at 21:04

Drew

29,895
7
74
104

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 02 '10 at 10:44

Like this?

(defadvice dired-find-file (around kill-old-buffer activate)
    "When navigate from one dired buffer to another, kill the old one."
    (let ((old-buffer (current-buffer))
          (new-buffer (dired-get-filename))) 
      ad-do-it
      (kill-buffer old-buffer)
      (switch-to-buffer new-buffer)
))

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Mar 02 '10 at 11:08

If you mostly want to have each dired buffer work with various subdirs that are all under a single hierarchy (e.g. one dired buffer for each of several ongoing projects), you can use the built-in i (dired-maybe-insert-subdir) and k (dired-do-kill-lines on the header of an inserted subdir to remove it from the buffer) commands. They will let you edit multiple directories inside a single dired buffer. You might want a small custom command and to remap RET if it is too ingrained in your muscle memory though.

dired mode single window? (emacs)

5 Answers5