GNU Emacs Manual - List Buffers

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Listing Existing Buffers

C-x C-b
List the existing buffers (list-buffers ).

To display a list of all the buffers that exist, type C-x C-b. Each line in the list shows one buffer's name, major mode and visited file. The buffers are listed in the order, most recently visited first.

`*' at the beginning of a line indicates the buffer is ``modified''. If several buffers are modified, it may be time to save some with C-x s (see Saving). `%' indicates a read-only buffer. `.' marks the selected buffer. Here is an example of a buffer list:

	 MR Buffer         Size  Mode           File
	 -- ------         ----  ----           ----
	.*  emacs.tex      383402 Texinfo       /u2/emacs/man/emacs.tex
	    *Help*         1287  Fundamental	
	    files.el       23076 Emacs-Lisp     /u2/emacs/lisp/files.el
	  % RMAIL          64042 RMAIL          /u/rms/RMAIL
	 *% man            747   Dired          /u2/emacs/man/		
	    net.emacs      343885 Fundamental   /u/rms/net.emacs
	    fileio.c       27691 C              /u2/emacs/src/fileio.c
	    NEWS           67340 Text           /u2/emacs/etc/NEWS
	    *scratch*	   0	 Lisp Interaction

Note that the buffer `*Help*' was made by a help request; it is not visiting any file. The buffer man was made by Dired on the directory `/u2/emacs/man/'.


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