Buffer management

Buffers manage the display of files and other information. Opening a file replaces the content in the current buffer.

Listing open buffers

SPC b b to select a buffer from a list of buffers

A helm pop-up window appears at the bottom listing all open buffers. The helm popup window also shows recently opened buffers.

Using the buffer menu, SPC b b you can switch to any buffer currently open, especially useful for those buffers that are not currently being shown in a window.

You can also delete any of the currently open buffers when you no longer need them.

Buffer Transient State

SPC b . launches buffer transient state to manage buffers using single character keybindings.

With a single key you can cycle quickly through all open buffers, forward with n or backwards with either N or p.

Use d to kill the current buffer.

Commonly used keybindings

Vim Normal	Description
SPC b .	Enter buffer transient state
b	list open buffers
h	switch to home buffer
m	switch to home message
n	Show next buffer
N or p	Show previous buffer
q	Quit the buffer transient state

Kill buffers using buffer menu

Use helm-mini menu when you have a large number of buffers to delete.

SPC b b to open the buffer helm-mini menu

C-j and C-k to navigate buffer names in the list of open buffers

C-SPC to mark a buffer for deletion

M-D deletes all the marked buffers.

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Last update: December 25, 2022