Learning GNU Emacs, 3rd Edition

More About Buffers

In this section, we'll learn about saving multiple buffers, renaming buffers, read-only buffers, and operations you can do with the buffer list—not only a useful tool but a good introduction to the principles you'll encounter in the directory editor, Dired, covered in Chapter 5.

Saving Multiple Buffers

You know about saving buffers individually by typing C-x C-s. Once you're using multiple buffers, you should also know that you can save them all at once by typing C-x s (for save-some-buffers). Emacs asks you if you want to save each buffer that is connected with a file (it doesn't offer to save new buffers you've created but have not associated with a file and, of course, it doesn't save its own internal buffers). For each buffer, you can answer y to save it or n not to. You can also type ! to save all the buffers without asking. If you want to save this buffer and no more, type a period (.). If you want to cancel the command and not save the current buffer, press q (of course, any buffers you saved before pressing q are already saved; q does not undo those). You may want to look at the buffer before deciding whether to save it; if so, type C-r. Emacs enters view mode, allowing you to look at the buffer but not make changes. Press q to exit view mode and continue saving buffers.

Renaming Buffers

When you are editing a file, the buffer takes on the name of the file. If you have long filenames, you may find it convenient to rename buffers to shorter names (this ...