dired

{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2022}}

{{Infobox software

| screenshot = Emacs Dired buffers.png

| caption = Dired as implemented in Emacs, showing multiple buffers with custom colors.

| developer = Stan Kugell (original), Richard Stallman (for Emacs), Mike Lijewski, Stuart Cracraft (standalone Unix versions)

| released = Circa {{Start date and age|1974}}

| latest release version = 7.17

| latest release date = {{Start date and age|df=yes|2009|07|30}}{{Citation needed|date=August 2011}}

| operating system = Unix-like, Microsoft Windows, macOS, Emacs

| genre = File manager

| license = GPL (Free software)

| website = [http://www.deinprogramm.de/sperber/software/dired/ Mike Sperber's dired page]

}}

{{Portal|Free and open-source software}}

Dired (for Directory Editor) is a computer program for editing file system directories. It typically runs inside the Emacs text editor as a specialized mode, though standalone versions have been written. Dired was the {{citation needed span|first|date=October 2021}}{{discuss|reference for first?}} file manager, or visual editor of file system information.{{cite web |last=Kugell |first=Stanley G. |title=SAILDART/1978-08 |publisher=Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory DART (Dump and Restore Technique) Archive |year=1974 |url=https://www.saildart.org/DIRED.SGK%5BUP,DOC%5D1 |access-date=19 February 2014}}[https://www.saildart.org/PHONE.LST%5BP,DOC%5D23 SAILDART Username key for above] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150903224616/http://www.saildart.org/PHONE.LST%5BP%2CDOC%5D23 |date=3 September 2015 }}{{failed verification|date=October 2021}} The first version of Dired was written as a stand-alone program independently in 1972 by Dave Lebling{{Cite web|url=https://github.com/PDP-10/its-vault/blob/master/files/syseng/dired.mdl121|title = PDP-10/Its-vault| website=GitHub |date = 10 September 2021}} at Project MAC, and circa 1974 by Stan Kugell at the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (SAIL). It was incorporated into GNU Emacs from the earliest versions,{{cite web|url=https://github.com/typester/emacs/blob/master/etc/NEWS.1-17|title=Emacs NEWS.1-17 file|website=GitHub |date=8 April 2021|quote=Dired has a new command...}} and re-implemented in C and C++ on other operating systems.{{cite web|url=http://invisible-island.net/ded/|title=DED|quote=it is indisputable that both were inspired by an earlier stand-alone program running on Tenex available in the Stanford AI Lab (SAIL) in 1978.}}{{cite web|url=http://tldp.org/LDP/LG/issue14/dired.html|title=The Cracraft and Lijewski DIRED Programs|quote=Historically, shortly after emacs "dired" appeared in the TECO implementation, a stand-alone version was written...}}

When run in Emacs, dired displays an ls-like file listing in an Emacs buffer. The list can be navigated using standard navigation commands. Several Emacs Lisp scripts have been developed to extend Dired in Emacs. In combination with Tramp{{cite web |title=Tramp User Manual|publisher=Free Software Foundation |url=https://www.gnu.org/software/tramp/ |access-date=4 April 2009}} it is able to access remote file systems for editing files by means of SSH, FTP, telnet and many other protocols, as well as the capability of accessing local files as another user in the same session. There are also functions that make it possible to rename multiple files via Emacs search and replace capabilities{{cite web|title= WDired|url=https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/WDired}} or apply regular expressions for marking (selecting) multiple files.{{cite web|title=Dired Marks vs. Flags|url=https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Marks-vs-Flags.html}} Once marked, files can be operated on in various ways from deleting, to renaming, to executing an external shell command or elisp function on them. By means of the Lisp package dired-x{{cite web|url=https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_mono/dired-x.html|title=Dired Extra User's Manual|last=Kremer|first=Sebastian|date=2017|publisher=Free Software Foundation|access-date=11 April 2018}} it is also possible to handle existing ls-like directory listings in a virtual Dired mode. These can also be saved again, often using the filename extension dired.