GNU Emacs Manual - Dired and Find

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## Dired and `find`

You can select a set of files for display in a Dired buffer more flexibly by using the `find` utility to choose the files.

To search for files with names matching a wildcard pattern use `M-x find-name-dired`. It reads arguments directory and pattern, and chooses all the files in directory or its subdirectories whose individual names match pattern.

The files thus chosen are displayed in a Dired buffer in which the ordinary Dired commands are available.

If you want to test the contents of files, rather than their names, use `M-x find-grep-dired`. This command reads two minibuffer arguments, directory and regexp; it chooses all the files in directory or its subdirectories that contain a match for regexp. It works by running the programs `find` and `grep`. See also `M-x grep-find`, in section Running Compilations under Emacs. Remember to write the regular expression for `grep`, not for Emacs.

The most general command in this series is `M-x find-dired`, which lets you specify any condition that `find` can test. It takes two minibuffer arguments, directory and find-args; it runs `find` in directory, passing find-args to tell `find` what condition to test. To use this command, you need to know how to use `find`.

The format of listing produced by these commands is controlled by the variable `find-ls-option`, whose default value specifies using options ``-ld'` for `ls`. If your listings are corrupted, you may need to change the value of this variable.

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