# Dired

Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/dired/

8 people recommended Dired in Hacker News comments, 1 had mixed feelings and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 3 of 12 months, in 4 threads. It does not meet the Hacker Approved badge rule.

5 of the 8 people who recommend it commented in one thread, “Even More Batteries Included with Emacs”.

**Verdict:** People recommend Dired, the directory editor built into Emacs, for handling files with familiar shortcuts for marking, deleting, renaming, compressing and encrypting. The most common caveat is that its key bindings must be learned before it feels comfortable.

Summary written by Claude from 9 comments.

## Why people recommend it

- Familiar shortcuts for common file tasks (2 comments in the sample): "it kinda follows the usual shortcuts over bare unix util output: mark/select, delete, rename, compress, encrypt" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48547168)) "some features are really, really nice" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48538859))
- Fills a gap other managers missed (2 comments in the sample): "Aha! That's what's been missing in my life!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48550773)) "no other file manager ever worked for me" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48550180))

## What people warn about

- Hard to use without learning key bindings (1 comment in the sample): "I find the Dired UX out of the box to be frustrating given its reliance on remembering key bindings" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48537757))

## Other Emacs packages people recommend

- [Evil mode for Emacs](https://hackerapproved.com/p/evil-mode/): 33 recommend, 3 mixed, 7 criticize
- [agent-shell](https://hackerapproved.com/p/agent-shell/): 23 recommend, 2 mixed, 5 criticize
- [gptel](https://hackerapproved.com/p/gptel/): 18 recommend, 1 mixed, 1 criticize
- [Vertico](https://hackerapproved.com/p/vertico/): 18 recommend, 0 mixed, 1 criticize

## The badge

A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged.

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Dired", https://hackerapproved.com/p/dired/ (8 recommend, 1 mixed, 1 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026).

Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.