Synchronize current dired path to next dired dir shown in a split window

Question

first post :)

I wondered if anyone knew a way to quickly change the dired path of of the additional dired (in a split window) to the current dired path? like the traditional OFM synchronize panes?

Answer 1

Not sure what you want to do with that. You can duplicate the buffer as suggested by @lawlist but then you have both windows displaying the same buffer.

If what you want is two separate dired buffers visiting the same directory (so that you can for example insert subdirs in one but not in the other) you can try this (this is quickly hacked code so it may have pitfalls but it seems to work).

(defun my/get-other-dired-directory ()
  "find name and directory of another dired buffer"
  (let ((bs (buffer-list))
        (here (current-buffer))
        this)
    (mapc (lambda (b) (unless (equal b here)
            (with-current-buffer b
              (if dired-directory
                  (setq this (cons (buffer-name) dired-directory)))))) bs)
    this))

(defun my/set-dired-dir-to-other ()
  "Change the dired directory to the one of another existing dired buffer"
  (interactive)
  (let ((d (my/get-other-dired-directory)))
    (if d
        (progn
          (setq dired-directory (cdr d)
                default-directory (cdr d))
          (revert-buffer)
          (rename-buffer (generate-new-buffer-name (car d))))
      (message "No other dired buffer"))))

(add-hook 'dired-mode-hook
      (lambda () (define-key dired-mode-map "z" #'my/set-dired-dir-to-other)))

What this code does is:

1. find another dired buffer, get its name and directory,
2. if found, change the directory of the current dired buffer, revert it (update content) and change its name (since the name is supposed to reflect the visited directory)

This is bound to the z key. As usual, put this in your init file.