With a numeric argument, this command queries about each marked file, asking whether to remove its mark. You can answer y meaning yes, n meaning no, or ! to remove the marks from the remaining files without asking about them.

old-markchar

new-markchar

dired-change-marks

*

D

You can use almost any character as a mark character by means of this command, to distinguish various classes of files. If old-markchar is a space (‘ ’), then the command operates on all unmarked files; if new-markchar is a space, then the command unmarks the files it acts on.

To illustrate the power of this command, here is how to put ‘ D ’ flags on all the files that have no marks, while unflagging all those that already have ‘ D ’ flags:

* c D t * c <SPC> D * c t <SPC>