"Recentf": Open file from *Open Recent* Buffer, but read-only

Question

I'm using recentf-mode, part of Emacs. I'd like to open a file from the Open Recent buffer read-only, like if I had opened it via C-x C-r. Maybe if you type C-u in the Open Recent buffer before clicking on the file or typing its number.

Thank you!

Answer 1

You can customize recentf-menu-action, from C-h v recentf-menu-action:

recentf-menu-action is a variable defined in ‘recentf.el’. Its value is ‘find-file’

Documentation: Function to invoke with a filename item of the recentf menu. The default is to call ‘find-file’ to edit the selected file.

the default value is find-file, so if you always want read-only, you can just change it to find-file-read-only, if you only want read-only when with C-u, you can write a new function as its value, for example,

(defun find-file-maybe-read-only (f)
  (if current-prefix-arg
      (find-file-read-only f)
    (find-file f)))

(setq recentf-menu-action 'find-file-maybe-read-only)

Notes: prefix arguments doesn't work for number, e.g., C-u 2 doesn't work, though both C-u RET and C-u Clicking work.