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(emacs)Flagging Many Files

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Flagging Many Files at Once
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`#'
     Flag all auto-save files (files whose names start and end with `#')
     for deletion (Note: Auto Save).

`~'
     Flag all backup files (files whose names end with `~') for deletion
     (Note: Backup).

`&'
     Flag for deletion all files with certain kinds of names, names that
     suggest you could easily create the files again.

`. (Period)'
     Flag excess numeric backup files for deletion.  The oldest and
     newest few backup files of any one file are exempt; the middle
     ones are flagged.

`% d REGEXP <RET>'
     Flag for deletion all files whose names match the regular
     expression REGEXP.

   The `#', `~', `&', and `.' commands flag many files for deletion,
based on their file names.  These commands are useful precisely because
they do not themselves delete any files; you can remove the deletion
flags from any flagged files that you really wish to keep.

   `&' (`dired-flag-garbage-files') flags files whose names match the
regular expression specified by the variable
`dired-garbage-files-regexp'.  By default, this matches certain files
produced by TeX, `.bak' files, and the `.orig' and `.rej' files
produced by `patch'.

   `#' (`dired-flag-auto-save-files') flags for deletion all files
whose names look like auto-save files (Note: Auto Save)--that is,
files whose names begin and end with `#'.

   `~' (`dired-flag-backup-files') flags for deletion all files whose
names say they are backup files (Note: Backup)--that is, files whose
names end in `~'.

   `.' (period, `dired-clean-directory') flags just some of the backup
files for deletion: all but the oldest few and newest few backups of
any one file.  Normally `dired-kept-versions' (*not*
`kept-new-versions'; that applies only when saving) specifies the
number of newest versions of each file to keep, and `kept-old-versions'
specifies the number of oldest versions to keep.

   Period with a positive numeric argument, as in `C-u 3 .', specifies
the number of newest versions to keep, overriding
`dired-kept-versions'.  A negative numeric argument overrides
`kept-old-versions', using minus the value of the argument to specify
the number of oldest versions of each file to keep.

   The `% d' command flags all files whose names match a specified
regular expression (`dired-flag-files-regexp').  Only the non-directory
part of the file name is used in matching.  You can use `^' and `$' to
anchor matches.  You can exclude subdirectories by hiding them (Note:
Hiding Subdirectories).