Questions tagged [files]
Use this tag for questions about moving, deleting, or opening files. Or for questions about the difference between a buffer and its file. For topics such as "Saving Files", use "buffers" instead.
38
questions
45
votes
2
answers
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What's the difference between a buffer, a file, a window, and a frame?
When posing questions on this site, people sometimes talk about "windows" when they mean "frames," and "buffers" or "files" when they mean "windows." So:
Q: What is the difference between a buffer, ...
Dan♦
- 32.7k
97
votes
5
answers
33k
views
Edit file with super-user rights
When you have to edit system files, it's an usual situation that you launched Emacs with a normal user before, so the file will be write-protected. What can I do to gain root privileges? I mean ...
- 1,575
3
votes
1
answer
789
views
Open recent files buffer (recentf-mode) filled with autoload.el files
I've a problem with recentf-mode buffer in emacs. Apart from the files I opened before, its also showing all the autoload files for various packages I've installed which is cluttering the Open recent ...
- 3,152
20
votes
2
answers
8k
views
Save current file with a slightly different name
My files have long filenames and a part of the filename is a date and a version number. Often I'd like to save the file in the buffer using nearly the same name, just change version number or date.
...
- 508
5
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Character encoding when copying some text from somewhere to Emacs and saving to a file
Suppose I copy some text from a source (e.g. a webpage, a text file opened in an editor such as gedit or emacs) to a buffer in emacs, and then save the buffer to a text file.
When I copy the text ...
- 4,987
4
votes
2
answers
4k
views
Setting default-directory does not change find-file directory
I try to set a default path for opening a file via C-x C-f by adding the following to my .emacs:
(setq default-directory "~/some_dir/")
However, after I launch Emacs in some directory, the find-file ...
- 205
170
votes
10
answers
112k
views
How do I reload a file in a buffer?
I usually work on files which are updated in the file system via version control. What's a quick way to reload a file without having to C-x C-f the file again and getting asked if I want to reload it?
- 1,925
20
votes
2
answers
12k
views
Run command when opening a file of a specific filetype
I'm trying to get a lisp script to run some commands for me when I open a file of a specific filetype. I know that I'm working in the correct init file because if I remove the theme from it, emacs has ...
- 303
15
votes
2
answers
2k
views
What's wrong with `find-file-noselect`?
In a recent answer by lunaryorn, he stated:
However, I'd recommend against most other parts of Org, for reasons
already stated in comments: It's old, and full of legacy and harmful
practices (...
- 1,657
15
votes
4
answers
2k
views
How to tell Ido to get out of the way when I can already just paste the file name?
I'm trying to make myself use Ido mode. Some times it's nice, but other times it is extremely stupid. Here's my greatest disappointment.
I read some log with full file names, then I copy one name, ...
- 11.3k
14
votes
5
answers
4k
views
How do I search and replace over a set of files?
I'd like to define a set of files within which I can search and replace text.
To clarify:
I would like to be able to search, e.g., in all files xk*.tex in a given directory (and excluding backup ...
- 141
11
votes
2
answers
786
views
Programmatically insert files into Dired buffer
I have a list of file names (with full path) and I want to create a Dired buffer listing this set of files. How would I go about doing that?
How do I create a Dired buffer from a list of file names?
...
- 6,772
8
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Saving open file list and buffer command history in between sessions
I've discovered desktop-save-mode which allows Emacs to be closed and when it reopens, it appears with the same files that were open before.
I want to take this a bit further and I was wondering if I ...
- 1,537
17
votes
8
answers
8k
views
Recursively list all files and sub-directories
Is there a way, possibly using a package, to recursively list all the files (with paths) and sub-directories (or at least the empty sub-directories, since the paths to the non-empty ones can be ...
- 1,511
16
votes
6
answers
7k
views
Ivy disable completion for a command in minibuffer
Can I disable ivy completion for a single command while in minibuffer?
For example I am in folder ~/code/study/ . If I open find file and autocomplete with Ivy I will see
Find file: ~/code/study/
./...
- 1,231
13
votes
5
answers
8k
views
Comparing two text files on a Windows system
Since ediff-files and ediff-buffers result in apply: Searching for program: no such file or directory, diff error on windows machines.
How to compare two files using Emacs on a windows system?
- 1,351
13
votes
5
answers
8k
views
What is the easiest way to open the folder containing the current file by the default explorer of the OS?
What is the easiest way to open the folder containing the current file by the default explorer of the OS (e.g. explorer.exe in the case of Windows OS)?
- 7,749
13
votes
1
answer
5k
views
Open file in new window after searching it with helm
As written in A Package in a league of its own: Helm there's a way to
search for a file using Helm
decide after searching whether open it in same or other window
My question is: How?
- 1,351
13
votes
4
answers
17k
views
Spacemacs: kill buffer and kill window in one command?
Is there a spacemacs command that both closes the window and kills the buffer? In other words, the equivalent of Vim's :q?
- 544
9
votes
2
answers
1k
views
How can I jump to a file and line number from a list in a buffer?
I have a buffer with content like:
src/file4.rs:9
src/file4.rs:33
src/file4.rs:64
I'd like to be able to put my cursor on a line and jump to the appropriate file / line in the other window, just ...
- 267
8
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Specify major-mode for files with multiple extensions
In my .emacs file, I have:
(setq-default major-mode
(lambda ()
(let ((buffer-file-name
(replace-regexp-in-string
"\\.tmp$" ""
...
- 627
8
votes
2
answers
2k
views
.tramp_history files
I have noticed that opening a tramp connection on remote hosts sometimes created a .tramp_history file in the user's directory. Is there any way to disable such a behavior? I have to log in to many ...
- 387
6
votes
1
answer
185
views
How do I include non-code resources as part of an Emacs package?
I have a project that wants to play a sound file. I'd like to distribute this project in MELPA. There are two issues I'm having with that. They're both part of the question "how do I use ...
- 9,034
5
votes
2
answers
2k
views
What's the equivalent of `helm-find` in ivy/counsel? I want to find files **recursively**
helm-find is
Preconfigured ‘helm’ for the find shell command
I need the same functionality with ivy/counsel.
- 693
5
votes
3
answers
592
views
Switch buffer to the file path in current cursor position
My .emacs file contains multiple file names as,
(load "~/.emacs.d/others/keymaps.el")
(load "~/.emacs.d/others/py.el")
(load "~/.emacs.d/others/web.el")
Is there a way any library, gives way for me ...
- 1,977
5
votes
0
answers
242
views
Why is cloning of file buffers prohibited?
Why does clone-buffer not work on file buffers.
I can make it work by the following advice:
(advice-add 'clone-buffer :around
(lambda (oldfun &rest args)
"Allow cloning file buffers."
...
- 32.8k
5
votes
3
answers
1k
views
Load all org files into buffers?
I've got a couple dozen org files that I'd like to have loaded at once. They're in a directory structure something like this:
org/dev
org/dev/python.org
org/dev/emacs.org
...
org/dev/ios
org/dev/ios/...
- 269
4
votes
2
answers
629
views
Backup saved buffers to Dropbox (or other specific directory)
Is it possible to customize Emacs so that whenever I save a file, Emacs also copies it to a specific folder?
This directory could be, for instance, D:\my_backups or C:\Users\username\Dropbox\...
- 7,749
4
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Get file name relative to projectile root
I am trying to write a little function to get the projectile relative path of a buffer. My idea is to delete the substring projectile-project-root from the string buffer-file-name.
For example:
root-...
- 381
3
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Ignoring specific files in recentf-mode [duplicate]
I use company-statistics to sort completion candidates by previous completion choices. It works perfectly, except there is only tiny problem. The file ~/.emacs.d/company-statistics-cache.el pops up in ...
- 3,152
3
votes
1
answer
2k
views
prelude-ivy: How to select and open multiple files
I have installed Ivy (along with Swiper and Counsel) as part of Prelude by doing a (require 'prelude-ivy) in my prelude-modules.el file.
It seems to work, but I am not able to figure out how to do ...
- 271
2
votes
2
answers
140
views
Instruct Emacs never to open files of a certain type or size
In Emacs by default there is a large file warning threshold. I would prefer to instruct Emacs never to open files of a certain type or size. These are files I would prefer always to open in an ...
- 1,177
2
votes
1
answer
160
views
What are the '.#' links for? [duplicate]
When an Emacs buffer is modified, a broken link is created.
The link's name is a concatenation of '.#' followed by the file's name.
For example:
$ ls .#spacemacs_ref.org -l
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 wolfv wolfv ...
- 1,393
2
votes
0
answers
298
views
How to find/grep in Python virtualenv with projectile/helm easier?
How I can customize helm/projectile behaviour to find files and grep in $VIRTUALENV dir easier? Or maybe I can write some function(s) to find/grep in virtualenv of current project?
- 516
2
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Add hook for specific files
I am looking to create some customized settings for a specific file. I think I want to add a hook for that file, or something that will create a few settings when that file loads.
For example, I have ...
- 2,442
2
votes
3
answers
309
views
call write-file interactively with prompting
I have a function that creates a buffer, with a default file name, and would like the first user action for that buffer be a prompt to write the buffer to a file, allowing the user to change the ...
- 779
1
vote
6
answers
2k
views
How to append contents of multiple files into one file?
Emacs 26.1, Windows 10, Dired+
How to append contents of multiple files in one folder into one file?
- 3,916
1
vote
1
answer
137
views
Loading addition org files along with default scratch buffer
I do a lot of my programming in Haskell and Python. I've started maintaining a personal cheat-sheet for each of these languages for common constructs and tasks I often come across.
Hence whenever I ...
- 1,151