When I use dired and move to another directory, I end up with a lot of
buffers. How can I just use one buffer for navigation?
reddit / emacs

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Status-Detective-783 · 2022-02-24 06:43



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mkthree · 2022-02-24 07:04

You might want to use `a` (`dired-find-alternate-file`) instead of RET
(`dired-find-file`). The former will kill the current Dired buffer
before visiting the directory.

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Danrobi1 · 2022-02-24 07:39

To add to what u/mkthree said. There's also `i` which will expand the
`directory` in the same `dired-buffer`. Run `dired-kill-subdir` to
kill the expanded `directory`.

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olivuser · 2022-02-24 08:08

Just to add to this, because it is my current workflow when in dired.

It is possible to hide a subditectory's contents (I believe it is C-$,
not sure though). Thus, when using i, hiding subidrectories can
declutter your buffer and also speedup killing the subdirs not
required anymore.

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yep808 · 2022-02-24 08:12

Try dired-single. Works exactly as you wanted.

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Danrobi1 · 2022-02-24 09:06

Yep. There's a `dired-hide-subdir`. Good call.

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ZZhanChi · 2022-02-24 12:51

This is what I use to use dired in a single buffer automatically:
```lisp
  (defun fk/dired-up-directory ()
    "`dired-up-directory' in same buffer."
    (interactive)
    (find-alternate-file ".."))

  (defun fk/dired-find-file (orig-func &rest args)
    "If selected file is a directory, open it in same buffer,
otherwise, open the file in a new buffer."
    (let ((file (dired-get-file-for-visit)))
      (if (file-directory-p file)
          (apply 'dired-find-alternate-file args)
        (apply orig-func args))))

  (advice-add 'dired-up-directory :override 'fk/dired-up-directory)
  (advice-add 'dired-find-file :around 'fk/dired-find-file)
```
source: https://github.com/KaratasFurkan/.emacs.d#dired-1

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organic-bookworm · 2022-02-24 13:04

As a related note to consider, multiple Dired buffers may act as a
sort of explicit file metadata cache, when fetching directories over
slow media.

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The-Blackbeard · 2022-02-24 13:14

Emacs 28.1 will have the option `dired-kill-when-opening-new-dired-
buffer`

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00-11 · 2022-02-24 18:06

[Dired+](https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/DiredPlus) gives you an easy
way to do what you want. `C-M-R` (aka `C-M-S-r`), bound to `diredp-
toggle-find-file-reuse-dir`, toggles whether Dired `find-file` etc.
commands *reuse directories*.

A prefix arg specifies directly whether or not to reuse. If its
numeric value is non-negative then reuse; else don't reuse.
To set the behavior as a preference (default behavior), put this in
your init file, where `VALUE` is 1 to reuse or -1 to not reuse:

     (diredp-toggle-find-file-reuse-dir VALUE)

----

You can of course also just use `a` anytime, to not create a new
buffer. But this toggle lets you set and keep the behavior till you
change it (toggle again), and it affects multiple Dired commands that
visit a directory.

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Status-Detective-783 · 2022-02-24 18:24

Cool thanks!  And just for my newbie notes, prefix arg can be
specified as `C-u -1 M-x dired RET`, which gives you a confirmation of
dired listing switches set to `-al`, hit `RET` and then on to the
dired interaction.  Of course, that's more than needed given the
easier options, but good to understand. :)

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00-11 · 2022-02-24 19:05

`C-M-R` just determines whether, from now on (till you toggle again),
Dired reuses buffers, as opposed to creating new ones. It doesn't
change the interactive behavior of commands such as `dired` - so yes,
you can still use a prefix arg with them, to set the `ls` switches.