Re: Browsing dirs from Dired with graphical explorer

[Sébastien Vauban]

Hi Lennart,

>> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
>> (defun my-browse-dir ()
>>   "Open the current directory in your OS's file manager."
>>   (interactive)
>>   (let ((dir-as-string (dired-current-directory))
>>         (file-manager
>>          (cond (running-ms-windows "explorer")
>>                (t "/usr/lib/kde4/bin/dolphin"))))
>>     (start-process "browse" nil file-manager dir-as-string)))
>> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
>
> I think there are better ways to do this.

What do you mean exactly?


> I have implemented this for MS Windows in EmacsW32. It is in
> the file w32shell. (Unfortunately there is no easy way to get
> that file, you have to install EmacsW32+Emacs.)

I'm a convicted user of EmacsW32 when on Windows since a long
time. So, I could effectively (now that I know about it) easily
find your functions:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
(defun w32shell-explorer-file (file)
  "Open Windows Explorer with file FILE selected."
  (interactive "fFile to focus in Explorer: ")
  (let ((full-file (expand-file-name file)))
    (setq full-file (replace-regexp-in-string "/" "\\" full-file t t))
    (w32-shell-execute nil (concat (getenv "SystemRoot") "\\explorer.exe")
                       (concat "/n,/select," full-file))))

(defun w32shell-explorer-current-file ()
  "Open Windows Explorer with current file selected."
  (interactive)
  (if buffer-file-name
      (w32shell-explorer-file buffer-file-name)
    (message "Buffer has no file name")))

(defun w32shell-explorer-old (dir)
  "Open Windows Explorer in directory DIR.
For some reason with this function Explorer does not get
focus. Use the new version instead."
  (interactive "DStart in directory: ")
  (setq dir (expand-file-name dir))
  (w32-shell-execute nil dir))

(defun w32shell-explorer (dir)
  "Open Windows Explorer in directory DIR."
  (interactive "DStart in directory: ")
  (setq dir (expand-file-name dir))
  ;;(setq dir (directory-file-name dir))
  (message "dir=%s" dir) (sit-for 2)
  (w32-shell-execute
   "explore" ;;nil
   "" ;(concat (getenv "SystemRoot") "\\explorer.exe")
   (concat "/n," dir)
   ))

(defun w32shell-explorer-here ()
  "Open Windows Explorer in current directory."
  (interactive)
  (w32shell-explorer default-directory))
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

These look great, but the problem is I'd like to be able to use
the described functionality both under Ubuntu and Windows...

Best regards,
  Seb

-- 
Sébastien Vauban