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.
Put this file on your Emacs-Lisp load path and add the following to your ~/.emacs startup file.
(require 'dired-single)
or you can load the package via autoload:
(autoload 'dired-single-buffer "dired-single" "" t)
(autoload 'dired-single-buffer-mouse "dired-single" "" t)
(autoload 'dired-single-magic-buffer "dired-single" "" t)
(autoload 'dired-single-toggle-buffer-name "dired-single" "" t)
or you can just add (package-initialize) to automatically load every
package installed by package.el.
To add a directory to your load-path, use something like the following:
(setq load-path (cons (expand-file-name "/some/load/path") load-path))
M-x dired-single-buffer
Visits the selected directory in the current buffer, replacing the current contents with the contents of the new directory. This doesn't prevent you from having more than one dired buffer. The main difference is that a given dired buffer will not spawn off a new buffer every time a new directory is visited.
If the variable dired-single-use-magic-buffer is non-nil, and the current buffer's name is the same as that specified by the variable dired-single-magic-buffer-name, then the new directory's buffer will retain that same name (i.e. not only will dired only use a single buffer, but its name will not change every time a new directory is entered).
M-x dired-single-buffer-mouse
Essentially this is the same as `dired-single-buffer', except that the action is initiated by a mouse-click instead of a keystroke.
M-x dired-single-magic-buffer
Switch to an existing buffer whose name is the value of dired-single-magic-buffer-name. If no such buffer exists, launch dired in a new buffer and rename that buffer to the value of dired-single-magic-buffer-name. If the current buffer is the magic buffer, it will prompt for a new directory to visit.
M-x dired-single-toggle-buffer-name
Toggle between the 'magic' buffer name and the 'real' dired buffer name. Will also seek to uniquify the 'real' buffer name.
M-x dired-single-up-directory
Like dired-up-directory, but reuses the buffer. It handles the case
where the dired buffer has multiple subdirs listed (with
dired-maybe-insert-subdir), by just moving the point to the subdir
without refreshing the buffer.
To use the single-buffer feature most effectively, I recommend adding the following code to your .emacs file.
The following code will work whether or not dired has been loaded already.
(defun my-dired-init ()
"Bunch of stuff to run for dired, either immediately or when it's
loaded."
;; <add other stuff here>
(define-key dired-mode-map [remap dired-find-file]
'dired-single-buffer)
(define-key dired-mode-map [remap dired-mouse-find-file-other-window]
'dired-single-buffer-mouse)
(define-key dired-mode-map [remap dired-up-directory]
'dired-single-up-directory))
;; if dired's already loaded, then the keymap will be bound
(if (boundp 'dired-mode-map)
;; we're good to go; just add our bindings
(my-dired-init)
;; it's not loaded yet, so add our bindings to the load-hook
(add-hook 'dired-load-hook 'my-dired-init))
To use the magic-buffer function, you first need to start dired in a buffer whose name is the value of dired-single-magic-buffer-name. Once the buffer has this name, it will keep it unless explicitly renamed. Use the function dired-single-magic-buffer to start this initial dired magic buffer (or you can simply rename an existing dired buffer to the magic name). I bind this function globally, so that I can always get back to my magic buffer from anywhere. Likewise, I bind another key to bring the magic buffer up in the current default-directory, allowing me to move around fairly easily. Here's what I have in my .emacs file:
(global-set-key [(f5)] 'dired-single-magic-buffer)
(global-set-key [(control f5)] (function
(lambda nil (interactive)
(dired-single-magic-buffer default-directory))))
(global-set-key [(shift f5)] (function
(lambda nil (interactive)
(message "Current directory is: %s" default-directory))))
(global-set-key [(meta f5)] 'dired-single-toggle-buffer-name)
Of course, these are only suggestions.
M-x dired-single-customize to customize all package options.
The following variables can be customized:
dired-single-use-magic-buffer
Boolean used to determine if the dired-single functions should look
for and retain a specific buffer name. The buffer name to look for
is specified with dired-single-magic-buffer-name.
dired-single-magic-buffer-name
Name of buffer to use if `dired-single-use-magic-buffer' is true. Once a dired buffer has this name, it will always keep this name (unless it's explicitly renamed by you).
The single buffer code is loosely based on code posted to the NT-Emacs mailing list by Steve Kemp & Rob Davenport. The magic buffer name code is all mine.