comparison lispref/buffers.texi @ 12098:a6eb5f12b0f3

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buffer} at any time.  Most editing commands act on the contents of the
current buffer.  Each buffer, including the current buffer, may or may
not be displayed in any windows.
@end ifinfo

  Buffers in Emacs editing are objects that have distinct names and
hold text that can be edited.  Buffers appear to Lisp programs as a
special data type.  The contents of a buffer may be viewed as an
extendable string; insertions and deletions may occur in any part of the
buffer.  @xref{Text}.

  A Lisp buffer object contains numerous pieces of information.  Some of
this information is directly accessible to the programmer through
variables, while other information is accessible only through
special-purpose functions.  For example, the visited file name is

sort, and an error is signaled if it is neither a string nor a buffer.
Any argument called @var{buffer} must be an actual buffer
object, not a name.

  Buffers that are ephemeral and generally uninteresting to the user
have names starting with a space, so that the @code{list-buffers} or
@code{buffer-menu} commands don't mention them.  A name starting with
space also initially disables recording undo information; see
@ref{Undo}.

@defun buffer-name &optional buffer

A buffer visiting a write-protected file is normally read-only.

Here, the purpose is to show the user that editing the buffer with the
aim of saving it in the file may be futile or undesirable.  The user who
wants to change the buffer text despite this can do so after clearing
the read-only flag with @kbd{C-M-q}.

@item
Modes such as Dired and Rmail make buffers read-only when altering the
contents with the usual editing commands is probably a mistake.

automatically selects or displays some other buffer instead.  This means
that killing a buffer can in general change the current buffer.
Therefore, when you kill a buffer, you should also take the precautions
associated with changing the current buffer (unless you happen to know
that the buffer being killed isn't current).  @xref{Current Buffer}.

  The @code{buffer-name} of a killed buffer is @code{nil}.  You can use
this feature to test whether a buffer has been killed:

@example

@cindex indirect buffers
@cindex base buffer

  An @dfn{indirect buffer} shares the text of some other buffer, which
is called the @dfn{base buffer} of the indirect buffer.  In some ways it
is the equivalent, for buffers, of a symbolic link among files.  The base
buffer may not itself be an indirect buffer.

  The text of the indirect buffer is always identical to the text of its
base buffer; changes made by editing either one are visible immediately
in the other.  This includes the text properties as well as the characters

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buffer} at any time.  Most editing commands act on the contents of the
current buffer.  Each buffer, including the current buffer, may or may
not be displayed in any windows.
@end ifinfo

  Buffers in Emacs editing are objects that have distinct names and hold
text that can be edited.  Buffers appear to Lisp programs as a special
data type.  You can think of the contents of a buffer as an extendable
string; insertions and deletions may occur in any part of the buffer.
@xref{Text}.

  A Lisp buffer object contains numerous pieces of information.  Some of
this information is directly accessible to the programmer through
variables, while other information is accessible only through
special-purpose functions.  For example, the visited file name is

sort, and an error is signaled if it is neither a string nor a buffer.
Any argument called @var{buffer} must be an actual buffer
object, not a name.

  Buffers that are ephemeral and generally uninteresting to the user
have names starting with a space, so that the @code{list-buffers} and
@code{buffer-menu} commands don't mention them.  A name starting with
space also initially disables recording undo information; see
@ref{Undo}.

@defun buffer-name &optional buffer

A buffer visiting a write-protected file is normally read-only.

Here, the purpose is to show the user that editing the buffer with the
aim of saving it in the file may be futile or undesirable.  The user who
wants to change the buffer text despite this can do so after clearing
the read-only flag with @kbd{C-x C-q}.

@item
Modes such as Dired and Rmail make buffers read-only when altering the
contents with the usual editing commands is probably a mistake.

automatically selects or displays some other buffer instead.  This means
that killing a buffer can in general change the current buffer.
Therefore, when you kill a buffer, you should also take the precautions
associated with changing the current buffer (unless you happen to know
that the buffer being killed isn't current).  @xref{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.

  The @code{buffer-name} of a killed buffer is @code{nil}.  You can use
this feature to test whether a buffer has been killed:

@example

@cindex indirect buffers
@cindex base buffer

  An @dfn{indirect buffer} shares the text of some other buffer, which
is called the @dfn{base buffer} of the indirect buffer.  In some ways it
is the analogue, for buffers, of a symbolic link among files.  The base
buffer may not itself be an indirect buffer.

  The text of the indirect buffer is always identical to the text of its
base buffer; changes made by editing either one are visible immediately
in the other.  This includes the text properties as well as the characters