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17.1: Introduction to Minibuffers

In most ways, a minibuffer is a normal Emacs buffer. Most operations within a buffer, such as editing commands, work normally in a minibuffer. However, many operations for managing buffers do not apply to minibuffers. The name of a minibuffer always has the form *Minibuf-number, and it cannot be changed. Minibuffers are displayed only in special windows used only for minibuffers; these windows always appear at the bottom of a frame. (Sometime frames have no minibuffer window, and sometimes a special kind of frame contains nothing but a minibuffer window; see Minibuffers and Frames.)

The minibuffer's window is normally a single line. You can resize it temporarily with the window sizing commands; it reverts to its normal size when the minibuffer is exited. You can resize it permanently by using the window sizing commands in the frame's other window, when the minibuffer is not active. If the frame contains just a minibuffer, you can change the minibuffer's size by changing the frame's size.

If a command uses a minibuffer while there is an active minibuffer, this is called a recursive minibuffer. The first minibuffer is named *Minibuf-0*. Recursive minibuffers are named by incrementing the number at the end of the name. (The names begin with a space so that they won't show up in normal buffer lists.) Of several recursive minibuffers, the innermost (or most recently entered) is the active minibuffer. We usually call this ``the'' minibuffer. You can permit or forbid recursive minibuffers by setting the variable enable-recursive-minibuffers or by putting properties of that name on command symbols (see Minibuffer Misc).

Like other buffers, a minibuffer may use any of several local keymaps (see Keymaps); these contain various exit commands and in some cases completion commands (see Completion).