Dired

An Emacs mode for manipulating directories and files.

C-x d to start it, will show a listing of the directory contents. dired-listing-switches to configure the initial listing.

Visiting/Viewing Files

• RET to go and visit the file
• v to view the file (can press q to quit the buffer, a bit like a stack)
• C-o to open file in another buffer but don't focus it.

Marking

Basic mark is m, and u to unmark, with a U to unmark everything like a reset.

You can mark a subset of files like:

• * . means to mark by extension
• * / to mark directories
• * * to mark executables

You use t to invert the marks, so I guess you could use it to select all non-directories by doing a * / t