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From: ardis@wanginst.EDU (Mark A. Ardis)
Newsgroups: comp.emacs
Subject: Re: notion of current directory (GNUemacs)
Message-ID: <691@wanginst.EDU>
Date: Thu, 8-Jan-87 10:25:15 EST
Article-I.D.: wanginst.691
Posted: Thu Jan  8 10:25:15 1987
Date-Received: Fri, 9-Jan-87 21:34:30 EST
References: <23621@rochester.ARPA>
Reply-To: ardis@wanginst.UUCP (Mark A. Ardis)
Organization: Wang Institute of Graduate Studies
Lines: 26

>... Lots of times I want to find a file
>in the current directory, namely the one in which I fired up emacs in the
>first place...
>...What I really
>want to do is find out what the current directory is - I don't care about
>find-file....

You might find it useful to have a shell window active, so that you
can list the files in *its* current directory.  Try using some of the
following when appropriate:

M-x shell          (To create a shell window.)
^X 4 f file-name   (To visit the file in another window.)
^X 4 b *shell*     (To get the shell window back if it is not present.)
^X 1               (To delete other windows.)
^X 0               (To delete the current window.)

I usually fire up a shell in the morning and keep it active all day
long.  I change directory from the *shell* buffer with "cd" whenever
my focus of attention changes.  That way, I can use "ls" and "grep",
etc. to look for files.  Invoking "find-file" from the *shell* buffer
will give you the prefix you expect.
-- 
Mark A. Ardis                           ardis%wanginst@CSNet-Relay (CSNet)
Wang Institute of Graduate Studies       ...!decvax!wanginst!ardis (UUCP)
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