RE: [External] : Re: filemananger for emacs with meta information about a file without opening it

[Drew Adams]

> I am looking for a kind of «filemanager» for emacs, that allows me to
> obtain some meta information (about the content of the file) without
> opening it.

Jean Louis mentioned Dired command `dired-show-file-type'
(which just runs GNU/Linux/shell command `file').

If you use Dired+ then that's bound by default to `_',
not `y' (`y' is `diredp-relsymlink-this-file').

If you use Dired+ and `help-fns+.el', then `C-h RET' is
`diredp-describe-file', which describes the file/dir of
the current line.  (Also `diredp-mouse-describe-file'.)

If the file/dir is a symlink then, with a non-negative
prefix arg, `C-h RET' describes the symlink target instead.

If you also use Bookmark+, and if the file has an
autofile bookmark, then `C-h RET' with a non-positive
prefix arg describes the bookmark too.

So a zero prefix arg describes symlink and bookmark.

(An autofile bookmark is automatically named with the
nondir part of the bookmarked file name.  It acts like
a file, but with additional, user-defined properties.)

E.g., if file `aaa.el' is on the current line, and it
has an autofile bookmark, then `C-h RET' shows something
like this:
_____________________________________________________

Bookmark `aaa.el'
-----------------

File:                   aaa.el
Directory:              z:/foo/bar/toto/
Position:                 1
Visits:                 5
Last visit:             7/30/2017 6:00:12 PM
Tags:
 "magenta"
 "orange"
 "blue"


z:/foo/bar/toto/aaa.el
----------------------

File type:                  Normal file
Content type:               Lisp/Scheme program, UTF-8 Unicode text
Permissions:                -rw-rw-rw-
Size in bytes:              96476
Time of last access:        Thu Nov  3 21:51:07 2022 (Pacific Daylight Time)
Time of last modification:  Thu Feb 27 09:04:48 2014 (Pacific Standard Time)
Time of last status change: Wed Jul 25 07:58:32 2018 (Pacific Daylight Time)
Number of links:            1
User ID (UID):              37786
Group ID (GID):             513
Inode:                      281474976868278
Device number:              315267003
_____________________________________________________

The "Content type" is whatever description the command
`dired-show-file-type' provides.
___

As for providing your own metadata for a file, which
some raised as a possibility, you can use a bookmark
annotation for that.  Any metadata you want.  It can
even refer to another file with more metadata, for
info you don't want to store as part of the bookmark.