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7.4.8 Creating and Killing Buffers

Creating Buffers

There are two primitives for creating buffers, plus several others:

get-buffer-create

creates a buffer if it finds no existing buffer with the specified name;

generate-new-buffer

always creates a new buffer and gives it a unique name.

with-output-to-temp-buffer

create-file-buffer

Killing Buffers

Killing a buffer makes its name unknown to Emacs and makes the memory space it occupied available for other use. The ‘buffer-name’ of a buffer is ‘nil’ if, and only if, the buffer is killed. If you kill a buffer that is current or displayed in a window, Emacs automatically selects or displays some other buffer instead. Killing a buffer can change the current buffer. If you kill a buffer that is the base buffer of one or more indirect buffers, the indirect buffers are automatically killed as well.

A buffer that has not been killed is called a live buffer. To test whether a buffer is live or killed, use the function buffer-live-p (see below).

• get-buffer-create
• generate-new-buffer
• with-output-to-temp-buffer
• create-file-buffer
• kill-buffer
• kill-buffer-query-functions—a variable
• kill-buffer-hook—a permanent local variable
• buffer-offer-save—a buffer-local user-option
• buffer-save-without-query—a buffer-local variable
• buffer-live-p