Next: Misc Buffer, Previous: Select Buffer, Up: Buffers
list-buffers
).
To display a list of existing buffers, type C-x C-b. Each line in the list shows one buffer's name, major mode and visited file. The buffers are listed in the order that they were current; the buffers that were current most recently come first.
‘*’ in the first field of a line indicates the buffer is “modified.” If several buffers are modified, it may be time to save some with C-x s (see Save Commands). ‘%’ indicates a read-only buffer. ‘.’ marks the current buffer. Here is an example of a buffer list:
CRM Buffer Size Mode File . * .emacs 3294 Emacs-Lisp ~/.emacs % *Help* 101 Help search.c 86055 C ~/cvs/emacs/src/search.c % src 20959 Dired by name ~/cvs/emacs/src/ * *mail* 42 Mail % HELLO 1607 Fundamental ~/cvs/emacs/etc/HELLO % NEWS 481184 Outline ~/cvs/emacs/etc/NEWS *scratch* 191 Lisp Interaction * *Messages* 1554 Fundamental
Note that the buffer ‘*Help*’ was made by a help request; it is
not visiting any file. The buffer src
was made by Dired on the
directory ~/cvs/emacs/src/. You can list only buffers that are
visiting files by giving the command a prefix; for instance, by typing
C-u C-x C-b.
list-buffers
omits buffers whose names begin with a space,
unless they visit files: such buffers are used internally by Emacs.