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switch-to-buffer).
switch-to-buffer-other-window).
switch-to-buffer-other-frame).
To select the buffer named bufname, type C-x b bufname
<RET>. This runs the command switch-to-buffer with argument
bufname. You can use completion on an abbreviation for the buffer
name you want (see Completion). An empty argument to C-x b
specifies the buffer that was current most recently among those not
now displayed in any window.
To select a buffer in a window other than the current one, type
C-x 4 b bufname <RET>. This runs the command
switch-to-buffer-other-window which displays the buffer
bufname in another window. By default, if displaying the buffer
causes two vertically adjacent windows to be displayed, the heights of
those windows are evened out; to countermand that and preserve the
window configuration, set the variable even-window-heights to
nil.
Similarly, C-x 5 b buffer <RET> runs the command
switch-to-buffer-other-frame which selects a buffer in another
frame.
You can control how certain buffers are handled by these commands by
customizing the variables special-display-buffer-names,
special-display-regexps, same-window-buffer-names, and
same-window-regexps. See Force Same Window, and
Special Buffer Frames, for more about these variables. In
addition, if the value of display-buffer-reuse-frames is
non-nil, and the buffer you want to switch to is already
displayed in some frame, Emacs will raise that frame.
Most buffers are created by visiting files, or by Emacs commands that
want to display some text, but you can also create a buffer explicitly
by typing C-x b bufname <RET>. This makes a new, empty
buffer that is not visiting any file, and selects it for editing. Such
buffers are used for making notes to yourself. If you try to save one,
you are asked for the file name to use. The new buffer's major mode is
determined by the value of default-major-mode (see Major Modes).
Note that C-x C-f, and any other command for visiting a file, can also be used to switch to an existing file-visiting buffer. See Visiting.
Emacs uses buffer names that start with a space for internal purposes. It treats these buffers specially in minor ways—for example, by default they do not record undo information. It is best to avoid using such buffer names yourself.