change default action of opening multiple files in dired

Question

Having marked a bunch of files in dired-mode, if I wanted to open all them at once, I press F. But, the problem is, all the selected files opens in their own separate window and now i've at least as many windows as the files I marked in dired-mode.

Is it possible to change this behaviour to open only the window of the topmost file in dired listing (while also opening the rest of the selected files in dired-mode, but not opening each of them in a separate window)?

Answer 1

If you want that to happen all the time, try:

(define-key dired-mode-map (kbd "F") (lambda ()
                       (interactive)
                       (find-file (car (dired-get-marked-files)))))

If you want all the files to get opened, you could try this variation:

(define-key dired-mode-map (kbd "F")
  (lambda ()
    (interactive)
    (mapc #'find-file (reverse (dired-get-marked-files)))))

Answer 2

Spacemace Config

Based on the awesome solution by @John Kitchin, I implemented in spacemacs at the user-config function. You can use one of the two functions below depending on your preference.

• Using the spacemacs specific keybinding based on (general).

   (setq dired-dwim-target t)

   ;; --- another may to achieve ----
   (defun open-several-files-at-once ()
     (interactive)
     (mapc #'find-file (reverse (dired-get-marked-files))))
   (spacemacs/set-leader-keys "o" 'open-several-files-at-once)

• Method #2, Using the mapping based on natural emacs (works for any framework)

   (define-key dired-mode-map (kbd "C-c C-o")
     (lambda ()
       (interactive)
       (mapc #'find-file (reverse (dired-get-marked-files)))))

• Be aware to map to free-keys not used by dired.
• You should set (setq dired-dwim-target t) to open in same tab.