maintaining emacs buffer history - emacs

How do I configure Emacs to keep track of the files visited and then allow me to navigate the chain back and forth? I'm not talking about mini-buffer or the cursor positions within the buffer, but rather the files themselves. I hope I got the terminology right of buffer vs file vs window.
ie if I visit
foo.c -> dired home -> readme.txt -> buffer-list
then by pressing some "back key" 3 times, file foo.c should open in the same (current) buffer I was in. Another way to think of it, is how navigation history works in Firefox - I want to browse files within the buffer like the webpages within a Firefox tab.

Use command previous-buffer which is bound by default to C-x <C-left> and C-x <left> (or nakedly, as I prefer to write them, C-x C-left and C-x left).
Similarly, to move in the other direction, there is command next-buffer, bound by default to C-x C-right and C-x right.
If you use library misc-cmds.el then you can remap the keys bound to these vanilla commands to repeatable versions previous-buffer-repeat and next-buffer-repeat.
(global-set-key [remap previous-buffer] 'previous-buffer-repeat)
(global-set-key [remap next-buffer] 'next-buffer-repeat)
Then you can just hold down right or left after hitting C-x, to quickly cycle through the buffers.

Related

How to force Org-mode to open a link in another frame?

In Org-mode it is possible to have links and top open links. As listed by http://orgmode.org/orgcard.txt in Org-mode C-u C-c C-o or mouse-3 forces links to open in another window. How can I do the corresponding for frames, that is, how can I force a link to open in another frame?
What I want is for C-c C-o to work as per default but C-u C-c C-o to force the link to be opened in another frame.
(For the distinction of windows and frames see http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Frames.html.)
I am running Org-mode 7.6 in 23.3.1.
I just tested and you can get it to work by wrapping org-open-at-point in a (let ) as a custom function.
In this case I'm just prefixing the current org-link-frame-setup with your desired find-file-other-frame to ensure that if you use the command on another link type it will not fail.
(defun zin/org-open-other-frame ()
"Jump to bookmark in another frame. See `bookmark-jump' for more."
(interactive)
(let ((org-link-frame-setup (acons 'file 'find-file-other-frame org-link-frame-setup)))
(org-open-at-point)))
I suspect you will need to bind it to a key sequence other than C-u C-c C-o, unless Emacs will permit you to bind it to that sequence specifically.
Have a look at the variable org-link-frame-setup (M-x customize-variable RET org-link-frame-setup). The docstring should explain the approach.
I just tested this in a non-customized emacs:
emacs -q
GNU Emacs 24.0.92.1 (i386-mingw-nt5.1.2600) of 2011-11-30 on MARVIN
Org-mode version 7.7
When running C-c C-o and C-u C-c C-o on a link similar to the following:
file:~/Dropbox/org/test.org::*Test
I end up with a new frame being opened in both cases. C-u C-u C-c C-o opens the test.org file in my active emacsclient session. When changing the link to .../org/test.txt it still opens in a new frame, however it is unable to create the new file (I'm assuming I don't have .txt properly associated on my end, which is possible).
Testing with [mailto:test#test.org][test-mail]] also results in new frames by default.
Edit: The value for org-link-frame-setup is as follows (it is also the default since it is from emacs -q):
Its value is ((vm . vm-visit-folder-other-frame)
(gnus . org-gnus-no-new-news)
(file . find-file-other-window)
(wl . wl-other-frame))

Emacs buffer shown after closing a buffer

How can I modify the way emacs picks which buffer to show after closing a buffer?
When I have multiple columns showing the same buffer, and then open another file in one of the buffers and then close the newly opened buffer, it doesn't switch back to the previous buffer, but to another buffer.
I'll try to explain with an example:
Start with a new emacs at *scratch*
C-x 2 (split into two columns)
C-x C-f 1 (find file 1)
C-x o (switch to other frame)
C-x b 1 (find file 1)
C-x C-f 2 (find file 2)
C-x k (kill buffer)
Now it switches to scratch but I would like it to show 1 in both windows again, is it possible to make emacs behave this way?
This may not be a direct answer to your question, but it might help.
Emacs manages its buffer list, including deciding which buffer gets displayed when you kill one (via kill-buffer). I haven't looked into how it's done, but the documentation is "out there". Lots of people have created custom buffer-stack management magic to change the way emacs does things, maybe some of them are based on bayesian analysis, or whatever. You can imagine the possibilities.
I've never looked into changing the way emacs manages its buffers. Instead I just bind other-window and switch-to-buffer to easy keystrokes (C-x o, C-x b) and I get really good at using them.
you could create a simple function for what you want: it should destroys all other windows, then split the window so that the current buffer is displayed in both. Luckily, emacs has functions that do exactly those things.
(defun cheeso-show-buffer-two-windows ()
"Close all other windows; then split, and show the current
buffer in both windows."
(interactive)
(delete-other-windows)
(split-window-vertically))
Bind that to a keystroke, and badda-bing, you're there. This is a vertical split - the windows are displayed in a vertical stack. If you want it horizontally split (the windows are side-by-side), then replace ... well, you know.
This also doesn't quite help directly, but Winner mode might help you get where you want to get.
Are you using tabbar-mode? I had the same problem and for me tabbar was the cause. Tabbar adds the function tabbar-buffer-kill-buffer-hook to kill-buffer-hook. You can remove it with (remove-hook 'kill-buffer-hook 'tabbar-buffer-kill-buffer-hook).
If you don't use tabbar try M-x describe-variable kill-buffer-hook. One of the functions in this list should be responsible for messing with your buffers.

How to invoke the buffer list in Emacs

I usually type M-x buffer-menu to switch buffers in Emacs. How can I do this with a shorter command? Its quite a long string to type.
Thanks!
You can use C-x b to change buffers. You have to enter the first few letters of the buffer name, and of course you can use completion. If you press TAB (the most useful key in Emacs), a list of (matching) buffers appears. You can click in this list to switch to a buffer.
You can bind buffer-menu to a key. Pick a key that's not used for another command — let's say f12 — and add the following line to the file ~/.emacs:
(global-set-key (kbd "<f12>") 'buffer-menu)
There are many other interfaces to changing buffers in Emacs, and they can be significantly more efficient than C-x b and C-x C-b. Since this tends to be a very personal choice, I recommend you experiment with a few and keep the one(s) you feel most comfortable with.
C-x C-b
As stated here
I'd highly recommend switching to a mode designed for efficient buffer switching.
If your version of Emacs is recent enough (22+):
M-x ido-mode
and then:
C-x b
to switch buffers, with incremental substring matching, C-s and C-r rotate forward and backwards through the matches.
If you have an older version of Emacs, it should have:
M-x iswitchb-mode
and then, as with ido-mode:
C-x b
opens up the minibuffer to let you choose the buffer to switch to.
Bind C-x C-b to buffer-menu. There is no sense leaving it bound to list-buffers. list-buffers is just a eunuch version of buffer-menu. ;-)
And you might want to try this: http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/BufferMenuPlus
Try bs-show (in my opinion a way better than C-x C-b). You can bind it to F9 by adding this to .emacs:
(global-set-key (kbd "<f9>") 'bs-show)

How do I close an automatically opened window in Emacs?

This is probably a very naive Emacs question - I'm new to it.
When I'm evaluating a lisp expression, if there's an error the debugger automatically comes up in another window. If I have *scratch* and *info* open (the former for trying out lisp and the latter for reading about it), then the debugger opens up in the window that *info* was in. At the moment, I have to switch to that window, then change it back to *info*, before returning to *scratch*. (The same thing happens if I do C-x C-b for a list of buffers.) I'm guessing there has to be a way to just close that window without this long sequence of commands. Can anyone enlighten me?
At least here on my emacs (22.3), when the debugger pops up, its window becomes the active one. There, pressing q just quits the debugger, if that's what you want. At that point, it also gets out of recursive editing.
From what I understand, you want to close the buffer in the other window without moving your cursor from the current window.
I don't any existing function does that, so I rolled my own.
(defun other-window-kill-buffer ()
"Kill the buffer in the other window"
(interactive)
;; Window selection is used because point goes to a different window
;; if more than 2 windows are present
(let ((win-curr (selected-window))
(win-other (next-window)))
(select-window win-other)
(kill-this-buffer)
(select-window win-curr)))
You can bind it to something like "C-x K" or some other somewhat difficult-to-press key so you won't press it by mistake.
(global-set-key (kbd "C-x K") 'other-window-kill-buffer)
I use this a LOT! (for Help buffers, Compilation buffers, Grep buffers, and just plain old buffers I want to close now, without moving the point)
I'm usually using the delete-other-windows command. C-x 1.
It's so regullar, that I rebinded to F4.
Official docs: https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Change-Window.html#Change-Window
HTH
Using winner mode, you can use the keybinding C-C left arrow to return to the previous window configuration. Of course, this doesn't actually kill the new buffer, but it does hide it.
I think you're looking for C-x 4 C-o, which displays a buffer in the "other" window without switching to it.
As mentioned above, in the case of the backtrace buffer you probably want to exit from it with q, to get out of the recursive edit.
Try to use popwin-mode. It is really good about closing windows automatically.
I want to describe how mechanism work|
You open undo-tree-visualize than you find your correct branch, after that when you change your active window which has cursor via switch-window undo-tree related buffer will close other window automatically.
One possible solution is to use a window management package. Store your "preferred" window arrangement, and after the debugger/buffer window pops up and you're done with it, revert to your preferred arrangement.
There are a bunch of packages to choose from, see: switching window configurations on the wiki.
Additionally, you might want to figure out the actions you commonly do that trigger the extra (unwanted) window popping up, and use that to trigger saving your window configuration just before the window pops up.
If you want to roll your own (it's pretty easy), you can just save off the window configuration, and restore it like so:
(setq the-window-configuration-i-want (current-window-configuration))
(global-set-key (kbd "<f7>")
(lambda () (interactive)
(set-window-configuration the-window-configuration-i-want)))
The trick is figuring out where to put the setting of the-window-configuration-i-want.
Thanks go to #spk for a nice function. I merely modified it to also close the window too and bound it to the already nice set of window control functions found in evil-windows (via "C-w"):
(use-package evil
:bind (:map evil-window-map ("O" . delete-most-recent-window))
:preface
(defun delete-most-recent-window ()
"Kill the buffer in the most recent window."
(interactive)
;; Window selection is used because point goes to a different window
;; if more than 2 windows are present
(let ((win-curr (selected-window))
(win-other (next-window)))
(select-window win-other)
(kill-this-buffer)
(delete-window) ; <-- Added this
(select-window win-curr))))

Pin Emacs buffers to windows (for cscope)

For my day job, I live in Emacs. Utterly. I also have become pretty dependent on CScope to help me find things in the code.
Normally, I have 2 windows in a split (C-x 3):
alt text http://bitthicket.com/files/emacs-2split.JPG
And I use the right window for code buffers and the left window for the CScope search buffer. When you do a CScope search and select a result, it automatically updates the right-side window to show the buffer referred to by the result. This is all well and good, except that it causes me to lose my place in some other buffer that I was studying. Sometimes this is no biggie, because [C-s u] gets me back to where I was.
What would be better, though, is to have 3 split windows like this ([C-x 2] in the left window):
alt text http://bitthicket.com/files/emacs-3split.jpg
And have the bottom left window contain the CScope search buffer, and the top left window be the only buffer that CScope ever updates. That way, I can see my CScope searches and navigate around the code without losing the buffer I'm focused on.
Anyone know how I can do that?
Put this in your .emacs file:
;; Toggle window dedication
(defun toggle-window-dedicated ()
"Toggle whether the current active window is dedicated or not"
(interactive)
(message
(if (let (window (get-buffer-window (current-buffer)))
(set-window-dedicated-p window
(not (window-dedicated-p window))))
"Window '%s' is dedicated"
"Window '%s' is normal")
(current-buffer)))
Then bind it to some key - I use the Pause key:
(global-set-key [pause] 'toggle-window-dedicated)
And then use it to "dedicate" the window you want locked. then cscope can only open files from its result window in some OTHER window. Works a charm. I specifically use it for exactly this purpose - keeping one source file always on screen, while using cscope in a second buffer/window, and looking at cscope results in a third.
Well, I decided to not be a reputation-whore and find the answer myself. I looked in cscope.el as shown on the Emacs wiki, as well as the xcscope.el that comes with the cscope RPM package on RHEL.
Neither appear to give a way to do what I'm wanting. The way is probably to edit the ELisp by adding a package variable like *browse-buffer* or something and just initialize that variable if not already initialized the first time the user does [C-c C-s g] or whatever, and always have the resulting code shown in *browse-buffer*. Then the user can put the *browse-buffer* wherever he wants it.