How do I save a cursor position?

Question

How can I save the cursor position for every file I have opened? So, next time I open the file, the cursor will be at the position I last opened it.

Answer 1

saveplace has you covered:

(require 'saveplace)
(setq-default save-place t)

Answer 2

Bookmarks can save your point position. I am currently getting a lot of mileage from bookmarks by using them instead of traditional desktop saving. This solution will provide many side benefits, as I shall describe below.

1. Edit a buffer and leave the point where you like.
2. Save as normal with C-x C-s.
3. Set a bookmark with C-x r m.
4. Close the buffer.
5. List bookmarks with C-x r l.
6. Move the point to the name of the file with C-s filename...
7. Press enter twice to load the file into a buffer.
8. Notice that the point is exactly where you left it; smile.

I like this workflow because:

• It gives me a permanent record of every file I ever edit.
• The buffer content is searchable, copyable, and accessible to macros and Lisp functions.
• Emacs remembers the location of the file; no more searching my hard drive for that little used shell script I wrote three years ago.
• The bookmark file loads very quickly, even if it grows very long, as compared to my old desktop with dozens of large files loading every time I run Emacs.
• Bookmarks has many more features I haven't even explored yet, like most of Emacs.

The one disadvantage to this workflow is that I must manually set the bookmark every time I save the file. The next step would be, I believe, to add a "hook" to automatically bookmark every file I save. I haven't gotten there yet, but I'm sure someone has that already figured out.