GNU Emacs Manual - Dired Commands

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## Commands in the Dired Buffer

The Dired buffer is "read-only," and inserting text in it is not useful, so ordinary printing characters such as `d` and `x` are used for special Dired commands. Some Dired commands mark or flag the current file (that is, the file on the current line); other commands operate on the marked files or on the flagged files.

All the usual Emacs cursor motion commands are available in Dired buffers. Some special-purpose cursor motion commands are also provided. The keys `C-n` and `C-p` are redefined to put the cursor at the beginning of the file name on the line, rather than at the beginning of the line.

For extra convenience, `SPC` and `n` in Dired are equivalent to `C-n`. `p` is equivalent to `C-p`. (Moving by lines is so common in Dired that it deserves to be easy to type.) `DEL` (move up and unflag) is often useful simply for moving up.

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