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### 30.4 Flagging Many Files at Once

The `#`, `~`, `.`, `% &`, and `% d` commands flag many files for deletion, based on their file names:

`#`

  Flag all auto-save files (files whose names start and end with ‘`#`’) for deletion (see Auto Save).

`~`

  Flag all backup files (files whose names end with ‘`~`’) for deletion (see Backup).

`. (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.

`% &`

  Flag for deletion all files with certain kinds of names which suggest you could easily create those files again.

`% d regexp RET`

  Flag for deletion all files whose names match the regular expression regexp.

`#` (`dired-flag-auto-save-files`) flags all files whose names look like auto-save files—that is, files whose names begin and end with ‘`#`’. See Auto Save.

`~` (`dired-flag-backup-files`) flags all files whose names say they are backup files—that is, files whose names end in ‘`~`’. See Backup.

`.` (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, the number of newest versions kept for each file is given by the variable `dired-kept-versions` (not `kept-new-versions`; that applies only when saving). The number of oldest versions to keep is given by the variable `kept-old-versions`.

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.

`% &` (`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`.

`% d` 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 certain subdirectories from marking by hiding them while you use `% d`. See Hiding Subdirectories.

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