My favorite dired feature is that if you C-x C-q (the standard Emacs binding to toggle the read-only status of a file), it makes the directory buffer writable.

My favorite dired feature is that if you C-x C-q (the standard Emacs binding to toggle the read-only status of a file), it makes the directory buffer writable. You can then edit the buffer like a regular file, including changing file names (or symbolic link targets, or other things, I presume), and when you're done, C-c C-c and it applies all the changes as renamed files, symbolic link retargeting, etc etc. Very handy, since you can use all the usual Emacs features like query-replace or kmacros while doing it.