Subject: bug#4341: 23.1; M-x locate runs synchronously

From: Michael Heerdegen <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 04 Nov 2020 12:14:08 +0100

Juri Linkov <[email-masked]> writes:

> Is it possible to avoid using "ls"?  If ls formatting is not needed,
> then the output buffer will look like a Dired buffer with enabled
> 'dired-hide-details-mode' that shows only file names.

I guess it is possible, I have no clue.  It's what we do now.

A downside is that developers would have to keep this in mind when
working on dired, otherwise things may work only partially or break.
For example, if you (in current Emacs master) mark files in a *locate*
output buffer, they get marked and you can act on them, but marked files
are not highlighted.

OTOH, if we leave the corner case of non-existing files aside for now -
when we do call ls (what would be the downsides?), we would get a fully
functional dired support out of the box.

Privately, I have adviced `locate' to insert the list of found files
into a new dired buffer (by calling `dired' with the explicit list of
files), and so far I find it better.  That is actually already all I can
contribute so far.

Regards,

Michael.