38.16 Editing the Dired Buffer

Wdired is a special mode that allows you to perform file operations by editing the Dired buffer directly (the “W” in “Wdired” stands for “writable”.) To enter Wdired mode, type M-x wdired-change-to-wdired-mode while in a Dired buffer. Alternatively, use ‘Edit File Names’ in the ‘Immediate’ menu bar menu.

While in Wdired mode, you can rename files by editing the file names displayed in the Dired buffer. All the ordinary Emacs editing commands, including rectangle operations and query-replace, are available for this. Once you are done editing, type C-c C-c (wdired-finish-edit). This applies your changes and switches back to ordinary Dired mode.

Apart from simply renaming files, you can move a file to another directory by typing in the new file name (either absolute or relative). To mark a file for deletion, delete the entire filename. To change the target of a symbolic link, just edit the target name displayed next to the link name.

The rest of the text in the buffer, such as the file sizes and modification dates, is marked read-only, so you can't edit it. However, if you set wdired-allow-to-change-permissions to t, the file permission bits can also be edited. For example, you can change ‘-rw-r--r--’ to ‘-rw-rw-rw-’ to make a file world-writable. These changes also take effect when you type C-c C-c.