How do I open several files at once in Emacs?

Question

Often when I start emacs I open the same set of files. How can I make it so that I can quickly select several files from a directory and open them?

Answer 1

You could try setting up a fileset in Emacs to accomplish this .

Answer 2

When you open emacs you can run dired. This will allow you to mark several files and open them at once. Not the best method, just putting it out there.

Dired Manual | Marking files with Dired

Answer 3

Have a look at the desktop commands, you can save your desktop into a file, say at the top of your project and then use desktop-change-dir to that project and it will load the files.

Have a look at the documentation on saving sessions. http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Saving-Emacs-Sessions.html#Saving-Emacs-Sessions

Answer 4

This is a think-outside-the-box solution:

I use ENSO launcher on my windows and am more than satisfied with it.

• select the files you want to open in explorer or total-commander or anywhere

• simply press ENSO button and type open with emacs

• and presto :)

I know it is not an emacs solution, but it is a very helpful productivity tool.

Answer 5

Yet another alternative is to just use a file glob (C-x C-f ~/foo/*.c RET, or proj/*/*.[ch], etc)