Buffer-local input history for read-from-minibuffer

Question

I've been trying to create a command that, when run, calls another function (my-function) which reads from the minibuffer and does some processing on the input. I want the command history for this command (my-command) to be buffer-local, so that each buffer will have a separate input history.

The input history is supposed to be stored in variable my-hist. Here's a summarized version of my code:

;; -*- lexical-binding: t; -*-

(defun my-function (hist)
  (read-from-minibuffer "> " nil nil nil 'hist))

(defvar my-hist nil)
(make-variable-buffer-local 'my-hist)

(defun my-command ()
  (interactive)
  (add-to-history 'my-hist (my-function 'my-hist)))

I've found that after executing my-command from two different buffers, their input history is shared, for some reason. Using M-p and M-n I can go back and forwards through all the inputs I've entered from any of the two buffers. However, if I inspect my-hist using M-:, the input history appears to be correct for each buffer.

Could this be related to how read-from-minibuffer looks up the value pointed at by symbol 'hist?

Answer 1

What I'm actually trying to do is ... calling read-number from a separate function (my-command) with a buffer-local variable as HIST.

As read-number doesn't have its own history list, you could let-bind minibuffer-history to your buffer-local history list around your call to read-number.

(defvar-local local-history nil
  "Buffer-local history.")

(defun my-command ()
  "Read a number."
  (interactive)
  (message "Number was %f"
           (let ((minibuffer-history local-history))
             (prog1 (read-number "Num: ")
               (setq-local local-history minibuffer-history)))))

That setq-local is needed because, following the read-number call, local-history might only be the cdr of the minibuffer-history list (i.e. if a new value was pushed to the history), so it needs to be updated to the current value.

Answer 2

Do this:

(defvar my-hist nil)
(make-variable-buffer-local 'my-hist)

(defun my-function (hist)
  (read-from-minibuffer "> " nil nil nil hist))

(defun my-command ()
  (interactive)
  (add-to-history 'my-hist (my-function 'my-hist)))

Don't quote hist when you pass it to read-from-minibuffer. You want to pass its value, e.g. the symbol my-hist, and not the result of evaluating 'hist, which is the symbol hist.

But I agree with you about using M-p etc. Function read-from-minibuffer apparently doesn't use the buffer-local value of the history variable - either for access or for updating (adding to it).

That would also explain why, to add to the buffer-local value you need to explicitly use add-to-history, passing the value of the input that was read.

Normally (i.e., if the history var is not buffer-local), you would just invoke (my-function 'my-hist) in my-command - read-from-minibuffer automatically adds the read input to the history variable. But doing that when the var is buffer-local doesn't update it.

Seems like a bug. But this is longstanding behavior (I see it back to Emacs 22, and I see the fact that it doesn't work without add-to-history even back to Emacs 20, which doesn't have add-to-history). So I'm probably missing something. Hopefully someone else will enlighten us.

(completing-read behaves the same way.)

Good question.

Answer 3

Here's how to do it buffer-locally:

(defvar-local my-hist-symbol nil)

(defun my-function ()
  (unless my-hist-symbol
    ;; Create the buffer's history symbol.
    (setq-local my-hist-symbol (make-symbol "my-hist")))
  (read-from-minibuffer "> " nil nil nil my-hist-symbol))

(defun my-command ()
  (interactive)
  (my-function))

(defun my-show-buffer-history ()
  (interactive)
  (if (null my-hist-symbol)
      (message "No history yet")
    (message "%s" (symbol-value my-hist-symbol))))