Can cursor jump back to the previous position?

Question

Can I make my cursor in a buffer jump back to its last position? (preferrably without having to mark the previous position)

For example, C-a jumps to the beginning of the current line, can I jump back to where it was before?

For example, when C-x C-f to open a file in a different directory, i want to jump back to the previous position in the path name.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Here are few mark-related bindings that can help you:

• C-SPC - set mark and activate region (bound to set-mark-command)
• C-SPC C-SPC - set mark (activates and then deactivates region)
• C-x C-x - bound to exchange-point-and-mark
• C-u C-SPC - move to previous mark

Check out the Mark documentation for better understanding of this topic.

Answer 2

If you're doing editing at the locations you land on, goto-last-change will do this for you. http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/GotoLastChange

Answer 3

For users of Doom Emacs (or evil users in general) vim functionality 'jump lists' is implemented and bound to C-i and C-o for O[ut] and I[n] - or backwards from drill down jumps and inwards

Your could also mark positions in files with m <char> and uppercase chars would work across files. To jump to the mark you'd use ` <char>

Answer 4

For me it was much easier than current answers describe it. Most of Emacs Lisp functions (like goto-line, lsp-find-implementation or isearch, counsel-search), that significantly modify the cursor position, set the mark before execution. So all you really need is pop-to-mark-command, which will iterate and jump through the list of marks in the current buffer.

And of course it will not "remember" the previous cursor position when you hit arrow button and move one line down, which is kinda useless, as it is faster to hit up arrow button for that:)

Answer 5

You can use 'Registers'.

From emacs info file

13.1 Saving Positions in Registers

C-x r <SPC> R Record the position of point and the current buffer in register R (point-to-register).

C-x r j R Jump to the position and buffer saved in register R (jump-to-register).

Typing C-x r <SPC> (point-to-register), followed by a character 'R', saves both the position of point and the current buffer in register R. The register retains this information until you store something else in it.

The command C-x r j R switches to the buffer recorded in register R, and moves point to the recorded position. The contents of the register are not changed, so you can jump to the saved position any number of times.

If you use C-x r j to go to a saved position, but the buffer it was saved from has been killed, C-x r j tries to create the buffer again by visiting the same file. Of course, this works only for buffers that were visiting files.

Answer 6

For users who jump around by using the universal argument, eg jumping up 10 lines: C-10 C-p, you lose your place. So you can use these to save your place on large-ish movements:

(defun my-next-line (arg)
  "Wrap `next-line' to save point mark."
  (interactive "P")
  (when (and arg (< 4 arg)) (push-mark (point)))
  (next-line arg))

(defun my-previous-line (arg)
  "Wrap `previous-line' to save point mark."
  (interactive "P")
  (when (and arg (< 4 arg)) (push-mark (point)))
  (previous-line arg))

(global-set-key (kbd "C-n") 'my-next-line)
(global-set-key (kbd "C-p") 'my-previous-line)

Then C-u C-SPC (pop) or C-x C-x (exchange-point-and-mark-no-activate, no-pop) to get back.

Answer 7

Yes, you can try the ELPA package cursor-undo. Just install the package and enable the cursor-undo mode: (cursor-undo 1), cursor movements and some cursor-to-window relative position will be recorded. With standard Emacs undo command (C-_, C-/ or C-x u) you can go back to your previous cursor position. More descriptions are in the package web page or more clearly in the EmacsWiki.