To invoke Dired, do C-x d or M-x dired. The command reads
a directory name or wildcard file name pattern as a minibuffer argument
to specify which files to list. Where dired
differs from
list-directory
is in putting the buffer into Dired mode so that
the special commands of Dired are available.
The variable dired-listing-switches
specifies the options to
give to ls
for listing directory; this string must contain
`-l
'. If you use a numeric prefix argument with the dired
command, you can specify the ls
switches with the minibuffer
before you enter the directory specification.
To display the Dired buffer in another window rather than in the
selected window, use C-x 4 d (dired-other-window
) instead
of C-x d. C-x 5 d (dired-other-frame
) uses a
separate frame to display the Dired buffer.