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The buffer list is a list of all live buffers. Creating a
buffer adds it to this list, and killing a buffer excises it. The order
of the buffers in the list is based primarily on how recently each
buffer has been displayed in the selected window. Buffers move to the
front of the list when they are selected and to the end when they are
buried (see bury-buffer
, below). Several functions, notably
other-buffer
, use this ordering. A buffer list displayed for the
user also follows this order.
In addition to the fundamental Emacs buffer list, each frame has its
own version of the buffer list, in which the buffers that have been
selected in that frame come first, starting with the buffers most
recently selected in that frame. (This order is recorded in
frame's buffer-list
frame parameter; see Window Frame Parameters.) The buffers that were never selected in frame come
afterward, ordered according to the fundamental Emacs buffer list.
This function returns the buffer list, including all buffers, even those whose names begin with a space. The elements are actual buffers, not their names.
If frame is a frame, this returns frame's buffer list. If frame is
nil
, the fundamental Emacs buffer list is used: all the buffers appear in order of most recent selection, regardless of which frames they were selected in.(buffer-list) => (#<buffer buffers.texi> #<buffer *Minibuf-1*> #<buffer buffer.c> #<buffer *Help*> #<buffer TAGS>) ;; Note that the name of the minibuffer ;; begins with a space! (mapcar (function buffer-name) (buffer-list)) => ("buffers.texi" " *Minibuf-1*" "buffer.c" "*Help*" "TAGS")
The list that buffer-list
returns is constructed specifically
by buffer-list
; it is not an internal Emacs data structure, and
modifying it has no effect on the order of buffers. If you want to
change the order of buffers in the frame-independent buffer list, here
is an easy way:
(defun reorder-buffer-list (new-list) (while new-list (bury-buffer (car new-list)) (setq new-list (cdr new-list))))
With this method, you can specify any order for the list, but there is no danger of losing a buffer or adding something that is not a valid live buffer.
To change the order or value of a frame's buffer list, set the frame's
buffer-list
frame parameter with modify-frame-parameters
(see Parameter Access).
This function returns the first buffer in the buffer list other than buffer. Usually this is the buffer selected most recently (in frame frame or else the currently selected frame, see Input Focus), aside from buffer. Buffers whose names start with a space are not considered at all.
If buffer is not supplied (or if it is not a buffer), then
other-buffer
returns the first buffer in the selected frame's buffer list that is not now visible in any window in a visible frame.If frame has a non-
nil
buffer-predicate
parameter, thenother-buffer
uses that predicate to decide which buffers to consider. It calls the predicate once for each buffer, and if the value isnil
, that buffer is ignored. See Window Frame Parameters.If visible-ok is
nil
,other-buffer
avoids returning a buffer visible in any window on any visible frame, except as a last resort. If visible-ok is non-nil
, then it does not matter whether a buffer is displayed somewhere or not.If no suitable buffer exists, the buffer ‘*scratch*’ is returned (and created, if necessary).
This function puts buffer-or-name at the end of the buffer list, without changing the order of any of the other buffers on the list. This buffer therefore becomes the least desirable candidate for
other-buffer
to return.
bury-buffer
operates on each frame'sbuffer-list
parameter as well as the frame-independent Emacs buffer list; therefore, the buffer that you bury will come last in the value of(buffer-list
frame)
and in the value of(buffer-list nil)
.If buffer-or-name is
nil
or omitted, this means to bury the current buffer. In addition, if the buffer is displayed in the selected window, this switches to some other buffer (obtained usingother-buffer
) in the selected window. But if the buffer is displayed in some other window, it remains displayed there.To replace a buffer in all the windows that display it, use
replace-buffer-in-windows
. See Buffers and Windows.