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Chapter 24: Buffers

A buffer is a Lisp object containing text to be edited. Buffers are used to hold the contents of files that are being visited; there may also be buffers that are not visiting files. While several buffers may exist at one time, exactly one buffer is designated the current buffer at any time. Most editing commands act on the contents of the current buffer. Each buffer, including the current buffer, may or may not be displayed in any windows.

  • Buffer Basics What is a buffer?
  • Current Buffer Designating a buffer as current so primitives will access its contents.
  • Buffer Names Accessing and changing buffer names.
  • Buffer File Name The buffer file name indicates which file is visited.
  • Buffer Modification A buffer is modified if it needs to be saved.
  • Modification Time Determining whether the visited file was changed ``behind Emacs's back''.
  • Read Only Buffers Modifying text is not allowed in a read-only buffer.
  • The Buffer List How to look at all the existing buffers.
  • Creating Buffers Functions that create buffers.
  • Killing Buffers Buffers exist until explicitly killed.
  • Indirect Buffers An indirect buffer shares text with some other buffer.