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(dired-x)Shell Command Guessing

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Shell Command Guessing
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   Based upon the name of a file, Dired tries to guess what shell
command you might want to apply to it.  For example, if you have point
on a file named `foo.tar' and you press `!', Dired will guess you want
to `tar xvf' it and suggest that as the default shell command.

   The default is mentioned in brackets and you can type `M-p' to get
the default into the minibuffer and then edit it, e.g., to change `tar
xvf' to `tar tvf'.  If there are several commands for a given file,
e.g., `xtex' and `dvips' for a `.dvi' file, you can type `M-p' several
times to see each of the matching commands.

   Dired only tries to guess a command for a single file, never for a
list of marked files.

`dired-guess-shell-alist-default'
     Predefined rules for shell commands.  Set this to `nil' to turn
     guessing off.  The elements of `dired-guess-shell-alist-user'
     (defined by the user) will override these rules.

`dired-guess-shell-alist-user'
     If non-`nil', a user-defined alist of file regexps and their
     suggested commands.  These rules take precedence over the
     predefined rules in the variable `dired-guess-shell-alist-default'
     (to which they are prepended) when `dired-do-shell-command' is
     run).

     Each element of the alist looks like

          (REGEXP COMMAND...)

     where each COMMAND can either be a string or a lisp expression
     that evaluates to a string.  If several commands are given, all of
     them will temporarily be pushed onto the history.

     You can set this variable in your `~/.emacs'.  For example, to add
     rules for `.foo' and `.bar' file extensions, write

          (setq dired-guess-shell-alist-user
                (list
                 (list "\\.foo$" "FOO-COMMAND");; fixed rule
                 ;; possibly more rules...
                 (list "\\.bar$";; rule with condition test
                        '(if CONDITION
                             "BAR-COMMAND-1"
                           "BAR-COMMAND-2"))))

     This will override any predefined rules for the same extensions.

`dired-guess-shell-gnutar'
     Default: `nil'

     If non-`nil', this is the name of the GNU Tar executable (e.g.,
     `tar' or `gnutar').  GNU Tar's `z' switch is used for compressed
     tar files.  If you don't have GNU tar, set this to `nil': a pipe
     using `zcat' is then used.

`dired-guess-shell-gzip-quiet'
     Default: `t'

     A non-`nil' value means that `-q' is passed to `gzip' overriding a
     verbose option in the `GZIP' environment variable.

`dired-guess-shell-znew-switches nil'
     Default: `nil'

     A string of switches passed to `znew'.  An example is `-K' which
     will make `znew' keep a `.Z' file when it is smaller than the
     `.gz' file.

`dired-shell-command-history nil'
     History list for commands that read dired-shell commands.