Chapter 4: Local Variables for Dired Directories

When Dired visits a directory, it looks for a file whose name is the value of variable dired-local-variables-file (default: `.dired'). If such a file is found, Dired will temporarily insert it into the Dired buffer and run hack-local-variables.

For example, if the user puts

Local Variables:
dired-actual-switches: "-lat"
dired-omit-files-p: t
End:

into a file called `.dired' in a directory then when that directory is viewed it will be

sorted by date
omitted automatically

You can set dired-local-variables-file to nil to suppress this. The value of dired-enable-local-variables controls if and how these local variables are read. This variable exists so that if may override the default value of enable-local-variables.

Please see the GNU Emacs Manual to learn more about local variables. See Local Variables in Files.

The following variables affect Dired Local Variables

dired-local-variables-file

Default: ".dired"

If non-nil, filename for local variables for Dired. If Dired finds a file with that name in the current directory, it will temporarily insert it into the dired buffer and run `hack-local-variables'.

dired-enable-local-variables

Default: t

Controls use of local-variables lists in dired. The value can be t, nil, or something else. A value of t means local-variables lists are obeyed in the dired-local-variables-file; nil means they are ignored; anything else means query. This variable temporarily overrides the value of enable-local-variables when the Dired Local Variables are hacked.

Omitting Technical

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