I have Emacs Windmove setup well and working, but I still have a small annoyance with it. There seems to be no way to slide one buffer over another buffer without switching the placement of both buffers. How can I slide a buffer over another buffer, displacing only that buffer.
Here's what I want to do:
___________ ___________ ___________
| | B | | | B | | | C |<-----
| A |_____| ---> | A |_____| ---> | A |_____| |
| | D | | | C | | | D | |
|____|_____| |____|_____| |____|_____| |
Buffer C opens up, ------^ With a key combo, maybe__|
covering buffer D I can slide up buffer C
to get back buffer D
EDIT: I forgot to mention I have some elisp that uses windmove to actually switch two buffers. The use case for what I want to do is that sometimes a buffer will open up in a certain window, covering up another buffer that I want to see. I want to slide the newly open buffer around without disturbing the other buffers, and to get the buffer back that was covered up. I hope that makes sense.
(defun slide-buffer (dir)
"Move current buffer into window at direction DIR.
DIR is handled as by `windmove-other-window-loc'."
(require 'windmove)
(let ((buffer (current-buffer))
(target (windmove-find-other-window dir)))
(if (null target)
(user-error "There is no window %s from here" dir)
(switch-to-prev-buffer)
(select-window target)
(switch-to-buffer buffer nil t))))
(defun slide-buffer-up () (interactive) (slide-buffer 'up))
(defun slide-buffer-down () (interactive) (slide-buffer 'down))
(defun slide-buffer-left () (interactive) (slide-buffer 'left))
(defun slide-buffer-right () (interactive) (slide-buffer 'right))
Bind it to C-S-<arrow>:
(define-key global-map (kbd "C-S-<up>") #'slide-buffer-up)
(define-key global-map (kbd "C-S-<down>") #'slide-buffer-down)
(define-key global-map (kbd "C-S-<left>") #'slide-buffer-left)
(define-key global-map (kbd "C-S-<right>") #'slide-buffer-right)
In your comment you say that you would like a "key combination to do it", meaning to (1) switch to the window showing buffer B and then (2) to switch the buffer shown in that window to buffer C.
How do you do that now? You use keys, no? So you already have a "key combination to do it". If you mean that you want a shorter key combination then write a command that chains together the commands bound to the keys you use now to do that.
There are several ways to do #1, and #2 is just C-x b C.
One way to do #1 is to use C-0 C-o in Icicles. It lets you pick a window by name, using completion. The command in question is icicle-choose-window-by-name.
Putting the two together, with Icicles you could use this code. Then hit F3 to do what you want.
(defun foo ()
(interactive)
(call-interactively #'icicle-choose-window-by-name)
(call-interactively #'switch-to-buffer))
(global-set-key [f3] 'foo)
There are other ways to choose a window, if you don't want to use Icicles. This is the place to start, when looking for info about selecting (navigating among) windows.
Related
I would like to customize the behavior when I split windows in Emacs:
I am always splitting because I want to view a separate buffer side-by-side with the one I'm currently editing.
I use electric-buffer-list (bound to C-x C-b) to navigate buffers.
I end up doing all of the following separately:
C-x 3 to split horizontally.
C-x o to switch to the other window.
C-x C-b to invoke electric-buffer-list so I can select the buffer I want to view.
It seems like I should be able to write an Elisp function that will do all of this when I press C-x 3.
I found this post which describes the focus switching part of the behavior that I want, but I don't understand how to extend that answer to achieve all of what I'm trying to do.
Edit: After reviewing #lawlist's post and debugging my syntax, I think I want to do something like this:
(defun split-right-and-buffer-list ()
(interactive)
(split-window-horizontally)
(other-window 0)
(electric-buffer-list 0))
(global-set-key (kbd "C-x 3") 'split-right-and-buffer-list)
This does everything I want, except that the buffer list that comes up only lists the current buffer, instead of the normal list of all buffers that I get when I invoke electric-buffer-list from its key binding.
With some very small modifications the function you came up with will do what you want:
(defun split-right-and-buffer-list ()
(interactive)
(split-window-horizontally)
(other-window 1)
(electric-buffer-list nil))
(global-set-key (kbd "C-x 3") 'split-right-and-buffer-list)
Passing 1 instead of 0 as an argument to other-window causes Emacs to select the new window created as a result of calling split-window-horizontally.
Passing nil instead of 0 as an argument to electric-buffer-list causes Emacs to show all buffers, not just file-visiting ones.
The thing that can trip you up here is that this isn't mentioned in the documentation for electric-buffer-list (which doesn't include any information about the ARG it takes). But when you look at the source code of this command, you'll notice that it simply passes the value of the argument on to a function called list-buffers-noselect (and doesn't use it for anything else). The documentation of this function contains the missing piece of information mentioned above.
If you do not mind having custom commands to do what you want try the following functions
(require 'ido)
(defun my-split-window-open-buffer-right (buffer)
(interactive (list (ido-read-buffer "Please select a buffer: ")))
(select-window (split-window-right))
(switch-to-buffer buffer))
(defun my-split-window-open-buffer-below (buffer)
(interactive (list (ido-read-buffer "Please select a buffer: ")))
(select-window (split-window-below))
(switch-to-buffer buffer))
Bind them to keys of you liking. I would prefer this over redefining/advising functions I have not written.
is there a way to quickly browse through lots of files in Emacs (24.3)? More specifically:
Let's assume an Emacs frame is split into two windows. Suppose focus is in the left window that has an open 'dired' buffer with lots of text files (or code). I would like to go up and down the list of files (e.g. with cursor keys), while at the same time the current file is shown in the right window. Even better the file is only viewed and closed once I move in the dired buffer to the next file. This would be very useful especially together with some 'omit' mode.
Can this be done in 'dired'? I also coudn't find this functionality in dired-x or in sunrise-commander. Is it possible?
The best candidates I tried already (and why they not solve the problem):
'v' which shows the current file, but also moves the attention
'C-o' which shows the current file, but after moving up or down, I have to press C-o again, also it generates lots of buffers
Thanks a lot for your help!
A simple and generic (while not optimum) solution could be via the C-x () mechanism.
First open the two panes in Emacs, with - say - top one being dired.
Press o to open the first file in the 2nd pane.
Then you can start the repetition mechanism:
do C-x ( to start recording a macro
do C-x k and return to close the buffer
do o again to go back to dired
do down key to go to next file
do o to open next file in bottom pane
do C-x ) to end the macro
From that point (being in bottom pane, dired in top pane), doing a mere
C-x e (and then only e if there is no other operation in between)
will automatically
close bottom pane file, go to top pane, down to next file, open it in bottom pane
There is maybe a more specific way to do that, but knowing the macro mechanism is anyway very helpful in Emacs.
Here's how I do this with view-mode:
(add-hook 'view-mode-hook
(lambda()
(define-key view-mode-map (kbd "n") 'dired-view-next)
(define-key view-mode-map (kbd "p") 'dired-view-prev)))
(defun dired-view-next ()
"Move to next dired line and view ."
(interactive)
(quit-window)
(dired-next-line 1)
(dired-view-file))
(defun dired-view-prev ()
"Move to next dired line and view ."
(interactive)
(quit-window)
(dired-next-line -1)
(dired-view-file))
UPD:
This one has two panes:
(defun dired-view-next-pane ()
(interactive)
(other-window 1)
(if view-mode
(kill-buffer))
(other-window -1)
(dired-next-line 1)
(view-file-other-window
(dired-get-file-for-visit))
(other-window -1))
Thanks a lot for all those answers. Summarizing I created the following solution (extending the answer of "abo-abo"):
;; little modification to dired-mode that let's you browse through lots of files
(add-hook 'dired-mode-hook
(lambda()
(define-key dired-mode-map (kbd "C-o") 'dired-view-current) ; was dired-display-file
(define-key dired-mode-map (kbd "n") 'dired-view-next) ; was dired-next-line
(define-key dired-mode-map (kbd "p") 'dired-view-previous))) ; was dired-previous-line
(defun dired-view-next ()
"Move down one line and view the current file in another window."
(interactive)
(dired-next-line)
(dired-view-current))
(defun dired-view-previous ()
"Move up one line and view the current file in another window."
(interactive)
(dired-previous-line)
(dired-view-current))
(defun dired-view-current ()
"View the current file in another window (possibly newly created)."
(interactive)
(if (not (window-parent))
(split-window)) ; create a new window if necessary
(let ((file (dired-get-file-for-visit))
(dbuffer (current-buffer)))
(other-window 1) ; switch to the other window
(unless (equal dbuffer (current-buffer)) ; don't kill the dired buffer
(if (or view-mode (equal major-mode 'dired-mode)) ; only if in view- or dired-mode
(kill-buffer))) ; ... kill it
(let ((filebuffer (get-file-buffer file)))
(if filebuffer ; does a buffer already look at the file
(switch-to-buffer filebuffer) ; simply switch
(view-file file)) ; ... view it
(other-window -1)))) ; give the attention back to the dired buffer
Three keys are changed:
C-o to view the current item in another window (possibly create one).
n to view the next item in another window.
p to view the previous item in another window.
This can be used in a dired buffer. Note that only dired-mode buffers and view-mode buffers get killed while moving up and down. If a file is shown that another buffer is already visiting (not in view-mode), that buffer is shown as well, but not killed when moving to the next. Another subtlety is the case when the passively shown buffer is the dired buffer used for going through the list (this can easily happen, when going inside a folder with RET). To handle this case, we first check whether we are trying to kill the initial dired buffer.
Load Icicles.
Define this command:
(defun my-find-file ()
"Like `icicle-find-file', but alt action views file temporarily.
Alternate action keys such as `C-S-down' visit the candidate file in
`view-mode' and kill the buffer of the last such viewed candidate."
(interactive)
(let ((icicle-candidate-alt-action-fn
(lambda (file)
(when (and my-last-viewed
(get-file-buffer my-last-viewed))
(kill-buffer (get-file-buffer my-last-viewed)))
(setq my-last-viewed (abbreviate-file-name file))
(view-file file)
(select-frame-set-input-focus
(window-frame (active-minibuffer-window))))))
(icicle-find-file-of-content)))
(defvar my-last-viewed nil
"Last file viewed by alternate action of `my-find-file'.")
Then you can:
Use M-x my-find-file (or bind it to a key - e.g., C-x C-f).
Optionally type part of a file name, to limit the matching names.
Optionally use down or up to cycle among file names.
Use C-S-down to visit the next file in order.
Repeat #4 to see other files in order.
Repeat #2 or #3 to see other sets of files.
End with RET to choose a file to visit or C-g to cancel.
Each file buffer you visited with C-S-down was killed when you
viewed the next one. You can also mix in C-down or C-RET to
also visit files whose buffers you do not want to kill
automatically. (Change view-file to find-file if you don't
want to visit in view-mode, which is read-only.)
[By default, the alternate action for icicle-find-file is
icicle-alt-act-fn-for-type, which prompts you for a file-
appropriate action to use on the particular candidate chosen for
the action. Command my-find-file just substitutes a different
alternate action function (for all candidates you choose).]
See also this thread from help-gnu-emacs#gnu.org. It is pretty much the same question as yours, I think. My replies there were pretty much the same as my reply here, but there are also replies from others that might help you as well.
Try
M-x speedbar
That might appeal to you
Another view-mode solution on top of ag-mode lists. I couldn't find a question for ag-mode, maybe this helps someone generalize a ffap-preview for any mode.
(defun directory-ag-results ()
(save-excursion
(goto-char (point-min))
(search-forward "\"")
(setq a (point))
(search-forward "\"")
(setq b (- (point) 1))
(buffer-substring-no-properties a b)))
(defun search-item-path ()
(let ((dir (directory-ag-results))
(file-parts (split-string (substring-no-properties (thing-at-point 'filename)) ":")))
(concat dir (nth 0 file-parts))))
(defun search-item-line ()
(let ((file-parts (split-string (substring-no-properties (thing-at-point 'filename)) ":")))
(- (string-to-number (nth 1 file-parts)) 1)))
(defun view-current ()
"Quickly view the current file in another window."
(if (not (window-parent))
(split-window)) ; create a new window if necessary
(let ((file (search-item-path))
(line (search-item-line))
(dbuffer (current-buffer)))
(other-window 1) ; switch to the other window
(unless (equal dbuffer (current-buffer)) ; don't kill the dired buffer
(if (or view-mode (equal major-mode 'dired-mode)) ; only if in view- or dired-mode
(kill-buffer))) ; ... kill it
(let ((filebuffer (get-file-buffer file)))
(if filebuffer ; does a buffer already look at the file
(switch-to-buffer filebuffer) ; simply switch
(progn
(view-file file) ; ... view it
(goto-char (point-min))
(next-line line)))
(other-window -1))))
(defun next-view-current ()
(interactive)
(next-line)
(view-current))
(defun previous-view-current ()
(interactive)
(previous-line)
(view-current))
(define-key ag-mode-map (kbd "M-p") 'previous-view-current)
(define-key ag-mode-map (kbd "M-n") 'next-view-current)
This is the one thing I think Sublime does better than Emacs. Blasphemy, I know! I like the "q to exit" feel of view-mode, rather than timer-based solutions, and like scrolling around a previewed file. This snippet navigates to the line number found in the search results, optimizing for browsing speed.
Note about the code: I tried polyfilling vc-root-dir from Emacs 25, but it doesn't really make sense for ag-mode since ag-mode's buffer is outside the repo you're searching in. I ended up pulling the root dir from the top of the "ag search" buffer.
Early stages. Improvements welcome.
Demo
Edit: It works for ag-mode, not dired. Demo gif.
Credits: abo-abo, user2979331
In the interest of keeping StackOverflow up to date, the package peep-dired does everything posted in the other answers, and I’m sure there are other packages as well. You don’t have to maintain copypasted or home-rolled lisp for this job.
I would like to implement a function that would let me cycle only through directory buffers that are open, and skip files or scratch buffers.
How would I go about that?
Take a look at tabbar mode -- you can define the groups to anything you want (e.g., dired), and cycle between groups with tabbar-backward-group and tabbar-forward-group:
http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/TabBarMode
tabbar-buffer-list-function can be used to further define whether certain files are displayed (or hidden).
tabbar-buffer-groups is the default group which can be modified with setq to whatever you want. If you want to create alternative methods of grouping, you can use tabbar-buffer-groups-function.
If dired is a group, then you can switch between those buffers by using (setq tabbar-cycle-scope 'tabs) with tabbar-backward and tabbar-forward.
If you'd like to have a go at implementing something,
have a look at Buffer-menu-mode. It's already got a toggle T for
showing only files.
And then it's just a matter to see how it builds the list
and filter it with
(eq major-mode 'dired-mode)
The source is quite small at strangely 665 lines.
I use buffer-stack for this.
I wrote two different functions that use that package: one for switching between dired buffers, and other for switching between buffers of the same mode I am. I use both intensively. This is how I do it:
;; For shorter keybindings
(defmacro command (&rest body)
`(lambda ()
(interactive)
,#body))
(defvar buffer-stack-mode)
(defun buffer-op-by-mode (op &optional mode)
(let ((buffer-stack-filter 'buffer-stack-filter-by-mode)
(buffer-stack-mode (or mode major-mode)))
(funcall op)))
(defun buffer-stack-filter-by-mode (buffer)
(with-current-buffer buffer
(equal major-mode buffer-stack-mode)))
(global-set-key [(meta kp-7)]
(command (buffer-op-by-mode 'buffer-stack-up)))
(global-set-key [(meta kp-9)]
(command (buffer-op-by-mode 'buffer-stack-down)))
(global-set-key [(meta kp-3)]
(command (buffer-op-by-mode 'buffer-stack-down 'dired-mode)))
(global-set-key [(meta kp-1)]
(command (buffer-op-by-mode 'buffer-stack-up 'dired-mode)))
EDIT:
I include the macro I use for command keybindings
Icicles offers a couple ways to do this.
Start in a Dired buffer and do C-0 C-x b TAB
C-x b, then C-x m +, then enter dired-mode (using completion), then TAB
Those give you only Dired buffers as the available candidates, which you can then match by name.
You can cycle among the buffers that match your input, using arrow keys (C-up, C-down). Use RET or C-g to end.
Prefix arg 0 means the candidates are the buffers in the same mode as the current buffer --- hence the first option above.
When completing, C-x C-m + prompts you for a mode and then filters out all candidates whose mode is not the same as or derived from the mode you enter (in this case, dired-mode) --- hence the second option above.
C-x b is bound in Icicle mode to icicle-buffer. If you want to open the buffers in different windows then use C-x 4 b (icicle-buffer-other-window).
See http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/Icicles_-_Buffer-Name_Input for more info.
My Emacs frame looks like this:
+---------------------------+
| | |
| | |
| | B |
| A | |
| | |
| | |
| |-------------|
| | C |
+---------------------------+
C is usually a terminal with some kind of long-running process, like a web server or daemon. Unfortunately, all sorts of things like to switch the buffer in that window and occasionally it gets resized. How can I lock the buffer and height of window C?
If you don't want to be annoyed by window stealing and resizing, put the following lines in your .emacs for a definitive solution that works even with libraries like gud that tries to open a new frame when they can't steal your windows :
(see this answer for info on the following advice)
(defadvice pop-to-buffer (before cancel-other-window first)
(ad-set-arg 1 nil))
(ad-activate 'pop-to-buffer)
;; 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)))
;; Press [pause] key in each window you want to "freeze"
(global-set-key [pause] 'toggle-window-dedicated)
and customize pop-up-windows variable to nil.
you could also use StickyWindows instead of window-dedicated feature.
One possibility is to dedicate the window to its buffer, using set-window-dedicated-p. This will not prevent the window from being resized manually, only protect it from being clobbered by display-buffer. For example,
(add-hook 'shell-mode-hook
(lambda ()
(interactive)
(set-window-dedicated-p (selected-window) 1)))
Replace shell-mode-hook as necessary.
This one also works fine (for emacs 24) https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/help-gnu-emacs/2007-05/msg00975.html
(define-minor-mode sticky-buffer-mode
"Make the current window always display this buffer."
nil " sticky" nil
(set-window-dedicated-p (selected-window) sticky-buffer-mode))
You could use winner-mode to be able to undo the changes to be the window sizes.
You could also explicitly save and restore the window configuration in registers.
Emacs does an okay job of being a window manager. I've been splitting up my Emacs frame like this:
+---------------------------+
| | |
| | |
| | B |
| A | |
| | |
| | |
| |-------------|
| | C |
+---------------------------+
C is usually a terminal with some kind of long-running process, like a web server or daemon. Occasionally I'll move the point there to restart the daemon, but most of the time I'd like to swap only between A and B. How can I make this convenient?
There's nothing built-in to do what you want. You can use the following code to do what you want (just customize the regular expression to match the name of the buffer(s) you want to avoid).
Note: the my-other-window doesn't implement all the features other-window does, that is left as an exercise for the reader.
my-other-window will try to switch to a window whose buffer doesn't match the avoid-window-regexp. If there's no such window available, then it just switches to the next one.
(require 'cl)
(defvar avoid-window-regexp "^[0-9]$")
(defun my-other-window ()
"Similar to 'other-window, only try to avoid windows whose buffers match avoid-window-regexp"
(interactive)
(let* ((window-list (delq (selected-window) (window-list)))
(filtered-window-list (remove-if
(lambda (w)
(string-match-p avoid-window-regexp (buffer-name (window-buffer w))))
window-list)))
(if filtered-window-list
(select-window (car filtered-window-list))
(and window-list
(select-window (car window-list))))))
And bind it appropriately:
(global-set-key (kbd "C-x o") 'my-other-window)
This works for eshell:
(add-hook 'eshell-mode-hook (lambda ()
(set-window-parameter (first (window-list)) 'no-other-window t)))
Setting no-other-window to non-nil makes the standard other-window function skip this. See other-window docs with C-h C-f other-window
There might be a better way to get the current window, but I don't know it yet.
Not the exact answer but I use windmove-mode for that which allow you to use the arrow to visually move between windows and then doing Control-Left or Control-Right to move only between A and B.
Other than that you probably can redefine other-buffer function with something that take buffer-list ignoring some patters when switch-to-buffer to it but I didn't write the code handy.
For the lazy, I use something like this in my .emacs
(fset 'doublejump
"\C-u2\C-xo")
(global-set-key (kbd "C-c o") 'doublejump)
and alternate between using single and double buffer switches.