bug#27631: dired a/*/b

[Tino Calancha]

積丹尼 Dan Jacobson <jidanni@jidanni.org> writes:

> Maybe make dired and list-directory deal with wildcards in positions like
> ~/.config/chromium/Default/*/menkifleemblimdogmoihpfopnplikde/
Thank you for the report.
IMO, this is a nice thing to have.

It must be possible to extend the current code so that
dired might handle wildcards in the directory part.

Following is a crude patch as a proof of principle.  Not heavily
tested yet, but for simple cases seems to work.
--8<-----------------------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
commit c172cd911229a02877dea2681f533c10e8e34b4f
Author: Tino Calancha <tino.calancha@gmail.com>
Date:   Thu Jul 13 14:43:34 2017 +0900

    dired: Handle wildcards in the directory part (Bug#27631)

diff --git a/lisp/dired.el b/lisp/dired.el
index 0c1f3e4af6..7fa3a47db5 100644
--- a/lisp/dired.el
+++ b/lisp/dired.el
@@ -913,11 +913,13 @@ dired-internal-noselect
                           "Directory has changed on disk; type 
\\[revert-buffer] to update Dired")))))
       ;; Else a new buffer
       (setq default-directory
-           ;; We can do this unconditionally
-           ;; because dired-noselect ensures that the name
-           ;; is passed in directory name syntax
-           ;; if it was the name of a directory at all.
-           (file-name-directory dirname))
+            (if (insert-directory-wildcard-in-dir-p dirname)
+                (car (insert-directory-process-wildcard dirname))
+             ;; We can do this unconditionally
+             ;; because dired-noselect ensures that the name
+             ;; is passed in directory name syntax
+             ;; if it was the name of a directory at all.
+             (file-name-directory dirname)))
       (or switches (setq switches dired-listing-switches))
       (if mode (funcall mode)
         (dired-mode dir-or-list switches))
@@ -1049,13 +1051,14 @@ dired-readin-insert
             (not file-list))
        ;; If we are reading a whole single directory...
        (dired-insert-directory dir dired-actual-switches nil nil t)
-      (if (not (file-readable-p
-               (directory-file-name (file-name-directory dir))))
-         (error "Directory %s inaccessible or nonexistent" dir)
-       ;; Else treat it as a wildcard spec
-       ;; unless we have an explicit list of files.
-       (dired-insert-directory dir dired-actual-switches
-                               file-list (not file-list) t)))))
+      (if (and (not (insert-directory-wildcard-in-dir-p dir))
+               (not (file-readable-p
+                    (directory-file-name (file-name-directory dir)))))
+         (error "Directory %s inaccessible or nonexistent" dir))
+      ;; Else treat it as a wildcard spec
+      ;; unless we have an explicit list of files.
+      (dired-insert-directory dir dired-actual-switches
+                             file-list (not file-list) t))))
 
 (defun dired-align-file (beg end)
   "Align the fields of a file to the ones of surrounding lines.
@@ -1272,11 +1275,16 @@ dired-insert-directory
          ;; Note that dired-build-subdir-alist will replace the name
          ;; by its expansion, so it does not matter whether what we insert
          ;; here is fully expanded, but it should be absolute.
-         (insert "  " (directory-file-name (file-name-directory dir)) ":\n")
+         (insert "  " (if (insert-directory-wildcard-in-dir-p dir)
+                           (car (insert-directory-process-wildcard dir))
+                         (directory-file-name (file-name-directory dir))) 
":\n")
          (setq content-point (point)))
        (when wildcard
          ;; Insert "wildcard" line where "total" line would be for a full dir.
-         (insert "  wildcard " (file-name-nondirectory dir) "\n")))
+         (insert "  wildcard " (if (insert-directory-wildcard-in-dir-p dir)
+                                    (cdr (insert-directory-process-wildcard 
dir))
+                                  (file-name-nondirectory dir))
+                  "\n")))
       (dired-insert-set-properties content-point (point)))))
 
 (defun dired-insert-set-properties (beg end)
diff --git a/lisp/files.el b/lisp/files.el
index 2f3efa33c2..96d1b49d50 100644
--- a/lisp/files.el
+++ b/lisp/files.el
@@ -6552,6 +6552,23 @@ directory-listing-before-filename-regexp
 
 (defvar insert-directory-ls-version 'unknown)
 
+(defun insert-directory-wildcard-in-dir-p (dir)
+  (string-match "\\`\\([^*]+\\)\\([*].*\\)"
+                (file-name-directory dir)))
+
+(defun insert-directory-process-wildcard (dir)
+  (let ((switches "")
+       (newdir "")
+       (regexp "\\`\\([^*]+/\\)\\([^*]*[*].*\\)"))
+    (cond ((string-match regexp (file-name-directory dir))
+          (string-match regexp dir)
+          (setq newdir (match-string 1 dir)
+                switches (match-string 2 dir)))
+         (t
+          (setq newdir (file-name-directory dir)
+                switches (file-name-nondirectory dir))))
+    (cons newdir switches)))
+
 ;; insert-directory
 ;; - must insert _exactly_one_line_ describing FILE if WILDCARD and
 ;;   FULL-DIRECTORY-P is nil.
@@ -6611,13 +6628,20 @@ insert-directory
                           default-file-name-coding-system))))
            (setq result
                  (if wildcard
-                     ;; Run ls in the directory part of the file pattern
-                     ;; using the last component as argument.
-                     (let ((default-directory
-                             (if (file-name-absolute-p file)
-                                 (file-name-directory file)
-                               (file-name-directory (expand-file-name file))))
-                           (pattern (file-name-nondirectory file)))
+                     ;; If the wildcard is just in the file part, then run ls 
in
+                      ;; the directory part of the file pattern using the last
+                      ;; component as argument.  Otherwise, run ls in the 
longest
+                      ;; subdirectory of the directory part free of wildcars; 
use
+                      ;; the remaining of the file pattern as argument.
+                     (let* ((dir-wildcard (and 
(insert-directory-wildcard-in-dir-p file)
+                                                
(insert-directory-process-wildcard file)))
+                             (default-directory
+                               (cond (dir-wildcard (car dir-wildcard))
+                                     (t
+                                     (if (file-name-absolute-p file)
+                                         (file-name-directory file)
+                                       (file-name-directory (expand-file-name 
file))))))
+                            (pattern (if dir-wildcard (cdr dir-wildcard) 
(file-name-nondirectory file))))
                        ;; NB since switches is passed to the shell, be
                        ;; careful of malicious values, eg "-l;reboot".
                        ;; See eg dired-safe-switches-p.
--8<-----------------------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
In GNU Emacs 26.0.50 (build 7, x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 3.22.11)
 of 2017-07-12
Repository revision: dde7f2d48b53996bdf767a8cf91aafc2e10add23