Question

In emacs, while in Dired mode, I can use the ~ command to mark all my emacs backups for deletion. Is there a way to mark them all recursively so I can delete all my backups in the current directory and all subdirectories?

Answer 1

You can define two kinds of dired: flat and recursive. For example:

(defun op-i:dired (rec)
  "customized dired: will display directory recursively when called with an argument"
  (interactive "P")
  (let ((dir (car (find-file-read-args "Dired: " nil))) 
        (opts (if rec (read-string "options: " "-lhAR") "-lhA")))
    (if (file-directory-p dir) (dired dir opts))))

(define-key (current-global-map) (kbd "C-x C-d") 'op-i:dired)

Then calling this function with C-u C-x C-d will display dired recursively and with C-x C-d will do it as usual.

After displaying dired recursively you can delete backups or do other stuff recursively too.