Make delete button to delete file at point in dired?

Question

In normal file managers like nautilus, if i select an item and press delete button, it will delete that item.

How can i achieve the same in dired? When point is at file, pressing delete button should delete that item?

Answer 1

If you use library Dired+ then the delete key is bound by default to to command diredp-delete-this-file, which deletes the file named on the line of the cursor, after confirmation. (C-k is bound to the same command.)

This is the entire definition of the command:

(defun diredp-delete-this-file ()       ; Bound to `C-k', `delete'
  "In Dired, delete the file on the cursor line, upon confirmation."
  (interactive) (dired-do-delete 1))

Answer 2

We can write a simple function to delete file at point and then bind it to delete button.

(defun delete-current-item ()
  "Delete file at point"
  (interactive)
  (dired-flag-file-deletion 1)
  (dired-do-flagged-delete))

(define-key dired-mode-map  [delete] 'delete-current-item)