I've looked around on the net and see some at least partial support for a function `dired-do-background-shell-command', but I am suprised that this feature isn't currently part of Emacs.
(If there is a way to run commands in the background from within dired, it isn't documented in the info file section "Shell Commands in Dired".) In GNU Emacs 22.1.50.3 (i686-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 2.8.20) of 2007-06-08 on deepblack Windowing system distributor `The X.Org Foundation', version 11.0.70101000 configured using `configure '--prefix=/usr' '--with-x' '--with-x-toolkit=gtk'' Important settings: value of $LC_ALL: nil value of $LC_COLLATE: nil value of $LC_CTYPE: nil value of $LC_MESSAGES: nil value of $LC_MONETARY: nil value of $LC_NUMERIC: nil value of $LC_TIME: nil value of $LANG: en_US.UTF-8 locale-coding-system: utf-8 default-enable-multibyte-characters: t Major mode: Help Minor modes in effect: shell-dirtrack-mode: t show-paren-mode: t tooltip-mode: t mouse-wheel-mode: t file-name-shadow-mode: t global-font-lock-mode: t font-lock-mode: t unify-8859-on-encoding-mode: t utf-translate-cjk-mode: t auto-compression-mode: t line-number-mode: t transient-mark-mode: 1 view-mode: t Recent input: <down> <down> <down> <down> <down> <down> <down> C-w C-x C-s <backspace> M-< C-x C-x C-g M-< <return> <return> M-< ; ; SPC D o c u m e n t a t i o n ; <backspace> : C-a ; C-e <return> <return> ; ; ; SPC C o d e : <up> <up> C-e <return> <return> ; ; SPC I SPC a m SPC o c <backspace> <backspace> c o n s i d e r i n g SPC a d d i n g SPC d i r e d - x <C-left> <C-left> <C-backspace> w a s SPC C-y C-e SPC s o SPC I SPC c o u l d SPC d o SPC <return> ; ; SPC d i r e d - b M-/ M-/ <backspace> <backspace> <backspace> <backspace> <backspace> <backspace> <backspace> <backspace> <backspace> d o - b a / M-/ <backspace> c M-/ ' <left> <C-left> ` C-e , SPC b u t SPC i t SPC d o e s n ' t <return> ; ; SPC s e e m SPC t o SPC p r o v i d e SPC t h a t SPC c o m m a n d . <tab> <tab> C-h f C-g M-x a p r o p o s <return> b a c k g r o u n d <return> C-x 1 C-n C-n C-n M-< C-x b * a <backspace> A p <tab> <return> C-x C-x C-g C-x C-f <return> C-h C-g C-h k ! C-x o C-SPC C-e M-w M-x b u g - g n <tab> <backspace> <backspace> <tab> <backspace> <backspace> <backspace> <backspace> e m a <tab> b u <tab> <backspace> <backspace> <backspace> <backspace> <backspace> <backspace> <backspace> <backspace> r e p <tab> o <tab> r <tab> <return> Recent messages: Expansion found in '*grep*' Auto-saving...done Quit Mark set Quit Directory has changed on disk; type g to update Dired Type C-x 1 to remove help window. Mark activated Making completion list... [2 times] Loading emacsbug...done _______________________________________________ emacs-pretest-bug mailing list emacs-pretest-bug@gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/emacs-pretest-bug